Mars Photos and Info

• 2005Oct13 0615 UT, Mars: CM ??° Celestron C11 OTA at f/20 with 2X barlow, Philips ToUcam, from Oceanside (seeing 3). A stack of the top 100 of 1200 frames. Mars: mag. -1.9, diameter 18.6". Processing: K3CCD (capture, 1/33rd second exp., 10 fps, gain 30%, gamma 40%, brightness 30%, saturation 30%, "raw/full frame"), Registax (alignment, stacking, wavelet processing, brightness and contrast adjustment), Paintshop Pro (rotation)).
• 2005Oct01 1030 UT, Mars: CM ??° Meade LX10 OTA at f/25 with 4X Powermate after f/6.3 reducer (lazy), Philips ToUcam, from Oceanside (seeing III). A stack of the top 500 of 1200 frames. Mars: mag. -1.9, diameter 18.6". Processing: K3CCD (capture, 1/33rd second exp., 10 fps, gain 40%, gamma 40%, brightness 50%, saturation 50%, "raw/full frame", brightness meter ??), Registax (alignment, stacking, wavelet processing), Paintshop Pro (rotation, color and saturation adjustments).
• 2003-Sep-06 0800 UT, Mars: CM 7° Meade LX10 OTA at f/40 with 4X Powermate, HX916, a stack of 30 LRGB images (0.10 second unbinned luminance, 0.20 second Red and Green, 0.40 second Blue), from Oceanside (seeing III). Processing: AIP (centering, stacking), MaxIm DL (color combination and balance).

  2003-Sep-06 0721 UT, Mars: CM 347° Meade LX10 OTA at f/40 (with 4X Powermate), Philips ToUcam, from Oceanside (seeing III). A stack of the top 1000 of 2000 frames. Mars: mag. -2.8, diameter 24.6". Processing: K3CCD (capture, 1/33rd second exp., 10 fps, gain 10%, gamma 40%, brightness 50%, saturation 50%, "raw/full frame", brightness meter 100-110), Registax (alignment, stacking, wavelet processing (light on left, hard on right), color channel alignment), Paintshop Pro (cropping, color adjustments).

• 2003-Sep-05 0820 UT, Mars: CM 21° Meade LX10 OTA at f/40 (with 4X Powermate), Philips ToUcam, from Oceanside (seeing III). A stack of the top 597 of 2000 frames. Mars: mag. -2.8, diameter 24.7". Processing: K3CCD (capture, 1/25th second exp., 10 fps, gain 20%, gamma 40%, brightness 40%, saturation 50%, "raw/full frame", brightness meter 100-110), Registax (alignment, stacking, wavelet processing (light on left, hard on right), color channel alignment), Paintshop Pro (cropping, color adjustments).

• 2003-Sep-05 0809 UT, Mars: CM 18° Meade LX10 OTA at f/40 (with 4X Powermate), Philips ToUcam, from Oceanside (seeing III). A stack of the all of 1500 frames. Mars: mag. -2.8, diameter 24.7". Processing: K3CCD (capture, 1/33rd second exp., 5 fps, gain 10%, gamma 25%, brightness 35%, saturation 50%, "raw/full frame", brightness meter 100-110), Registax (alignment, stacking, wavelet processing (light on left, hard on right), color channel alignment), Paintshop Pro (cropping, color adjustments).

  2003-Aug-27 0951 UT, Mars: CM 80° Meade LX10 OTA at f/18.4 (with 4X Powermate and forgetting to take off a f/4.6 reducer), Philips ToUcam, from Anza (seeing III-). A stack of the top 1000 of 2490 frames. Mars: mag. -2.9, diameter 25.1". Processing: K3CCD (capture, 1/25th second exp., 10 fps, gain 0%, gamma 25%, brightness 35%, saturation 50%, "raw/full frame", brightness meter 100-120), Registax (alignment, stacking, wavelet processing), Paintshop Pro (cropping, rotation, color adjustments, color channel alignment, resized 200%).

• 2003-Aug-27 0716 UT, Mars: CM 84° Meade LX10 OTA at ~f/65 (with 4X Powermate, 2X Barlow, and forgetting to take off a f/4.6 reducer), Philips ToUcam, from Anza (seeing III-). A stack of the top 1000 frames from a clip of 2490. Mars: mag. -2.9, diameter 25.1". Processing: K3CCD (capture, 1/25th second exp., 10 fps, gain 25%, gamma 40%, brightness 35%, saturation midline, "raw/full frame", brightness meter 80-90), Registax (alignment, stacking, wavelet processing (light on left, hard on right), Paintshop Pro (cropping, rotation, and color adjustments). For some reason adding a 2X Barlow magnified Mars more than 2X. It works out to more like 2.8X.

  Below is an animation of the above image (rotated and scaled a little bit to match the CalSky depiction) with annotations .

• 2003-Aug-27 0951 UT, Mars: CM 122°MARS AT CLOSEST APPROACH! Meade LX10 OTA at ~f/18.4 (with 4X Powermate and forgetting to take off a f/4.6 reducer), Philips ToUcam, from Anza (seeing III-). A stack of all 1245 frames. Mars: mag. -2.9, diameter 25.1". Processing: K3CCD (capture, 1/25th second exp., 5 fps, gain 0%, gamma 20%, brightness 35%, saturation 50%, "raw/full frame", brightness meter 100-110), Registax (alignment, stacking, wavelet processing), Paintshop Pro (cropping, rotation, color adjustments, color channel alignment, resized 200%).

• 2003-Aug-27 1012 UT, Mars: CM 127° Meade LX10 OTA at ~f/18.4 (with 4X Powermate and forgetting to take off a f/4.6 reducer), Philips ToUcam, from Anza (seeing III-). A stack of all 2485 frames. Mars: mag. -2.9, diameter 25.1". Processing: K3CCD (capture, 1/25th second exp., 10 fps, gain 0%, gamma 20%, brightness 35%, saturation midline, "raw/full frame", brightness meter 100-110), Registax (alignment, stacking, wavelet processing), Paintshop Pro (cropping, rotation, and color adjustments).

• 2003-Aug-25 0628 UT, Mars: CM 90° Meade LX10 OTA at f/40 with 4X Powermate, Philips ToUcam, from Oceanside (seeing III-). A stack of 1209 from 2480 ( >80 qual). Mars: mag. -2.9, diameter 25.1". Processing: K3CCD (capture, 1/25th second exp., 10 fps, gain 10%, gamma midline, brightness 50%, saturation 40%, "no recompression"), Registax (alignment, stacking, wavelet processing), Paintshop Pro (cropping, brightness, and color adjustments).

• 2003-Aug-25 0559 UT, Mars: CM 83° Same as above but at 5fps, and all of 1240 stacked.

• 2003-Aug-18 915UT

  Deimos and Phobos (f/40, Meade LX10 OTA with 4X Powermate, 20 5 second exposures to reveal the moons, 10 0.10 second exposures for a reasonably exposed Mars surface all with HX916 binned 2x2, from Oceanside, seeing IV, transp 2-3/10 (thickening marine layer)). Processing: AIP (planetary autoprocessing: autocenter, autocrop; stacking), MaxIm DL (DDP: FFT Low Pass; brightness and contrast adjustments), Paintshop Pro (image grab of JPL depiction and 15° rotation to match my image; selection and layering of correctly exposed Mars atop the overexposed "moon" image).

• 2003-Aug-17 0940 UT, Mars: CM 208° Meade LX10 OTA at f/40 with 4X Powermate, HX916, a stack of 30 LRGB images (0.10 second unbinned luminance, 0.20 second Red and Green, 0.40 second Blue), from Oceanside (seeing III, transp 7)). Processing: AIP (stacking, color combination and balance).
• 2003-Aug-17 1020 UT, Mars: CM 218° Meade LX10 OTA at f/40 with 4X Powermate, HX916, a stack of 30 LRGB images (0.10 second unbinned luminance, 0.20 second Red and Green, 0.40 second Blue), from Oceanside (seeing III, transp 7)). Processing: AIP (stacking, color combination and balance). A first attempt at Mars with the HX9 this opposition.

• 2003-Aug-17 1016 UT, Mars: CM 217° Meade LX10 OTA at f/40 with 4X Powermate, Philips ToUcam, from Oceanside (seeing IV-). A stack of 1000 from 2480. Mars: mag. -2.7, diameter 24.6". Processing: K3CCD (capture, 1/33rd second exp., 10 fps, gain 10%, gamma midline, brightness 75%, saturation midline, "no recompression"), Registax (alignment, stacking, wavelet processing), Paintshop Pro (cropping, brightness and color adjustments, color channel realignment to compensate for differential refraction).

• 2003-Aug-17 0700 UT, Mars: CM 169° Meade LX10 OTA at f/40 with 4X Powermate, Philips ToUcam, from Oceanside (seeing IV). A stack of 1000 from 2480. Mars: mag. -2.7, diameter 24.6". Processing: K3CCD (capture, 1/33rd second exp., 10 fps, gain 10%, gamma midline, brigthness 75%, saturation midline, "no recompression"), Registax (alignment, stacking, wavelet processing), Paintshop Pro (cropping, brightness and color adjustments, color channel realignment to compensate for differential refraction).

• 2003-Aug-16 10:44 UT, Mars: CM 233° Meade LX10 OTA at ~f/20 with 2X barlow, Philips ToUcam, from Oceanside (seeing IV-III). A stack of 1000 from 2400. Mars: mag. -2.7, diameter 24.5". Processing: K3CCD (capture, 1/25th second exp., 30 fps, gain low, gamma maxed, "no recompression"), Registax (alignment, stacking, wavelet processing), Paintshop Pro (cropping, brightness and color adjustments, color channel realignment to compensate for differential refraction).

• 2003-Aug-16 11:00 UT, Mars: CM 236°Image/equipment the same as above but at f/40 and with seeing slightly worse at III.

• 2003-Aug-10 5:59 to 12:01 UTMars animation: CM 217° to CM 305° (~f/20, Meade LX10 OTA with 2X Barlow, Philips ToUcam, from Anza (seeing IV-III). Each animation frame is a stack of 200 from ~500 taken every hour from 11pm to 5am. Mars: mag. -2.6, diameter 23.8". Processing: K3CCD (capture, 1/25th second exp., low gain, 20 fps), Registax (alignment, stacking, wavelet processing), Paintshop Pro (cropping, brightness and color adjustments, rotation), Animation Shop (animation).

• 2003-Aug-09 0709 UT, Mars: CM 243° Meade LX10 OTA at f/40 with 4X Powermate, Philips ToUcam, from Anza (seeing IV). A stack of all of 3600 frames. Mars: mag. -2.6, diameter 23.7". Processing: K3CCD (capture, 1/25th second exp., medium gain, 30 fps), Registax v2 (alignment, stacking, wavelet processing, color channel realignment, brightness and contrast adjustments), Paintshop Pro (cropping, color adjustments).

• 2003-Aug-09 0750 UT, Mars: CM 231° Meade LX10 OTA at f/40 with 4X Powermate, Philips ToUcam, from Anza (seeing IV). A stack of 1500 from 2400. Mars: mag. -2.6, diameter 23.7". Processing: K3CCD (capture, 1/25th second exp., medium gain, 30 fps), Registax (alignment, stacking, wavelet processing), Paintshop Pro (cropping, brightness and color adjustments, color channel realignment to compensate for differential refraction, resized 150%).

• WEBCAM ISSUES: An animation of a final Mars ToUcam images and it's Red, Green, and Blue channels showing that the Blue channel in particular is affected by atmospheric dispersion and needs IR blocking. First, note how the Blue channel elongates relative to the Red and Green channels. This shows how the blue if refracted at a different angle by the atmosphere and needs to be aligned separately. Second, note how the planet, particularly the polar cap, seems to go "double vision". This doubling is caused by one image being formed at IR wavelengths and the other being formed at blue wavelengths. The Green channel also seems to lift double a little bit, indicating that it suffers from both aspects as well.

• 2003-Aug-08 6:50 UT, Mars: CM 247° Meade LX10 OTA @ f/40 with 4X Powermate, Philips ToUcam, seeing III, from Anza. The image is a stack of 1000 from 3600. Mars: mag. -2.5, diameter 23.5". Processing: K3CCD (capture, 1/25th second exp., low gain, 30 fps, 2 minutes total), Registax (alignment, stacking, wavelet processing), Paintshop Pro (cropping, brightness and color adjustments, annotation, Mar Previewer II screen capture), Animation Shop (animation).

• 2003-July-31 11:06 to 12:18 UT Mars animation: CM 20° to CM 37°, Meade LX10 OTA at ~f/20, Philips ToUcam, seeing III to II (worsened over time). An animation of Mars with approximately 10 minutes between each frame. Each frame is a stack of about 200 images from a video clip of between 500 and 900 frames, from Anza. Mars: mag. -2.3, diameter 22.2". Processing: Philips ToUcam driver (capture), Registax (alignment, stacking, wavelet processing), Paintshop Pro (cropping, color adjustments), Animation Shop (animation).

• 2003-July-31 11:06 UT, Mars: CM 21° Meade LX10 OTA at ~f/20, Philips ToUcam, from Anza, seeing III. A stack of 3 image stacks, each stack itself a stack of 200 images from a video clip of ~900, each 1/25th second exposure, low gain. Mars: mag. -2.3, diameter 22.2". Processing: Philips ToUcam driver (capture), Registax (alignment, stacking, wavelet processing of original 3 video clips), PaintShop Pro (2X resize, stacking of resultant images from each video stack).

• 2003-July-27 10:42 UT, Mars: CM 52° Meade LX10 OTA at ~f/20, Philips ToUcam, seeing III. A stack of 200 images from a video clip of ~500, 1/25th second exposure, low gain. Mars: mag. -2.2, diameter 21.3". Processing: K3CCD (capture), Registax (alignment, stacking, wavelet processing), PaintShop Pro (2X resize, color channel realignment).

• 2003-July-27 12:15 UT, Mars: CM 75° Meade LX10 OTA at ~f/20, Philips ToUcam, seeing III. A stack of 200 images from a video clip of ~500, 1/25th second exposure, low gain. Mars: mag. -2.2, diameter 21.3". Processing: K3CCD (capture), Registax (alignment, stacking, wavelet processing), PaintShop Pro (2X resize, color channel realignment).

• 2001-June-14 - Mars in color. A result of RGB combining three sets of images, an average of 3 red-filtered 0.01 second images, an average of 3 green-filtered 0.05 second images, and an average of 3 blue-filtered 0.01 second images. All images were taken at ~f25 with the STV in "zoom" mode while Mars was at mag. -2.4, 20.57" in size.

• 2001-June-14 - The red component of the above RGB image of Mars (i.e., an average of three red-filtered images). This shows the best detail of any of the images I took this night.

• 2001-June-13 - Mars processed using a stack of 14 0.002 second exposures (all fourteen of the STV's image buffer were used, without throwing away any of them) taken at ~f25 with the STV in "zoom" mode while Mars was at mag. -2.4, 20.57" in size. Each individual image was the result of using the STV's "best sharp" imaging mode. Processed in AIP4Win using its planetary autoprocessing function, each images was autocentered, unsharp masked w/ radius 3 and contrast 3. I then average combined the fourteen images.

• 2001-May-26 - Mars processed using a stack of 9 0.030 second exposures (the 9 best of 14) taken at ~f25 with the STV in "zoom" mode while Mars was at mag. -1.9, 18.5" in size. Each individual image was the result of using the STV's "best sharp" imaging mode. Processed in AIP4Win using its planetary autoprocessing function, each images was autocentered, unsharp masked w/ radius 3 and contrast 3. I then average combined the nine images and scaled the result by 200%.

• 2001-May-19 - the three images below are the results of processing a stack of 6 0.030 second exposures (the six best of 14) taken at f20 with the STV in "zoom" mode while Mars was at mag. -1.7, 17.5" in size. Each individual image was the result of using the STV's "best peak" imaging mode.

  • Result 1: Processed in AIP4Win using its planetary autoprocessing function, each images was autocentered, unsharp masked w/ radius 2 and contrast 2. I then averaged combined the six images and scaled the result by 200%.

  • Result 2: Each of the six images was autocentered in AIP4Win. I then scaled the images 200%, unsharp masked each image (radius 4, contrast 3), and then average combined those.

  • Result 3: The image immediately above with an additional unsharp mask applied (radius 4, contrast 3).

  • The program Meridian's depiction of Mars for the same time as that when the images above were taken.

• 2001-April-21 - STV image of Mars while at mag. -0.8, 13" in size (f20 at prime focus, a stack of 5 0.010 second exposures in STV "zoom" mode)