Mars, rotating
Using the N 150/750 tube with the ASI 224MC, on the HEQ5, I imaged how the red planet rotates around its axis. While this is trivial, this is my first attempt, after being more than successful with Jupiter. Meanwhile, I got news that the ADC is coming after all, so I may image Saturn and Mars using an ADC, hoping for better results. Also, in a few days I’ll have been an amateur astronomer for twenty years
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Saturn, 2018-09-02
Tonight I put up the N 150/750 scope, with the almost-for-free extension tube to get meaningful sizes for the projection of the planets. Because the ADC I order from the internet still has not arrived, the dispersion is severe. However, there is a trick: to get the most out of the Cassini division, I used only the red channel as luminance, so lots of editing went into each Saturn-picture. The seeing was surprisingly good at first glance, but the stack quality revealed it was more of wishful thinking. Camera: ASI 224 MC, mount: HEQ5. The grey 1.25″ extension tube is from the nearest hardware store.
Mars, final picture
Using my MC 102/1300 with the ASI 224MC, on the HEQ5 installed on my balcony, I captured Mars. I, as usually, took 10k frames with a small ROI, and kept only the best few hundred frames for stacking. I used the usual software stack, Sharpcap for capturing, (PIPP and) Autostakkert for image stacking and Registax for the wavelets. Then some good old photo editing to get rid of the ringing and other artifacts. (tovább…)
