Mars on Dec 16, 2007
Image below of Mars from last night around 11pm, MST. Clear, transparent sky, 22°F , 2-3 mph wind, but turbulence not good, maybe 4/10 — too much movement to even check collimation. Image came out far better than I expected. Celestron Nexstar11 telescope at cassegrain focus, Phillips Toucam 840K, 20 fps, 3/4 gain, 100% brightness, and 1/500 sec shutter. Approx 4000 frames aligned, stacked, histogram adjusted, and wavelet filtered with Registax4. Resized 150%. North is approximately up, east to the left in the image. The central meridian should be around 19 degrees, so that is Mare Acidium near the top, Mare Erythreum is the dark feature extending from 9 o’clock on the left. Sinus Sabeus extends from about middisk to the 5 o’clock position.
December 20th, 2007 at 6:17 pm
Beautiful shot, I wish it wasn’t so cold here.
December 23rd, 2007 at 1:20 pm
Gentlemen:
I set up my 8″ Celestron NexStar reflector last night to view Mars snd was very disappointed in the minute size of the image, even when using various mm eyepieces. Why is that? In ‘03, the Mars in my ’scope looked like a small pea. I vcould make out features on the planet.,
Do I need a bigger scope to see Mars better this year and into February ‘08? If so, what kindshould I get? Expense is no factor, but of course a degree of mobility is a factor.
Pleadse help! And many thanks for any input.
Al
December 23rd, 2007 at 7:12 pm
Mars is further away and smaller this year, currently its only 15.85 arc sec as compared to 25.1 arc sec in 2003. It takes lots of magnification, excellent transparency, and low turbulence in the atmosphere to see much detail. With my Nexstar11, visually I use 2.5x Powermate and about an 8mm eyepiece if conditions are really good. Check your scopes collimation — it doesn’t have to be off much too loose detail. Try some red and green filters. Mars is very bright and you need to dim it by using magnification and/or filters to bring out details. I’ve been able to sketch through the eyepiece and get fairly close to what shows in the webcam image. My best views have always been on the notebook screen with a webcam instead of an eyepiece.
Best images of Mars on the web seem to be taken with the C14 but its not exactly what I’d call portable — though I occasionally see some folks tote them to star parties. I take my Nexstar11 to dark sky sites a lot. Its about all I can manage, each part (wedge, OTA, tripod) weighs around 60 lbs.
I’ve seen some excellent planetary views through a Celestron 9-1/4 and its nicely portable. The Meade 12″ would be good too but quite heavy. A 12 inch is the upper end of what to consider unless you work out with weights a lot or can rely on having someone along to help.
If expense is not a factor maybe a Tak 150 (6″ refractor), it gives some stunning planetary views. I haven’t seen Mars in one but Saturn was amazing.
January 2nd, 2008 at 10:54 am
Outstanding image Vern! I’m currently writing about what people can expect to see through their new Christmas scopes and would love to post your image (with a link and credit) on my blog. Please let me know if it’s ok.
I really enjoy your blog, your level of attention is great and I get most of my info on interesting stuff that’s coming up from you. Thanks for your efforts!
It’s too bad I didn’t get the opportunity to meet you when I lived in Louisville, I feel like I wasted an opportunity…
January 2nd, 2008 at 12:50 pm
Thanks Tony,
You are most welcome to use any images you wish anytime. I enjoy reading your blog as well.