27 replies to this topic

[Mike4242]

Shot of Mars from last night with the Omni XLT 102. Just thought I'd try it out and see how well it would do on planetary imaging. Not too shabby for a 4" achro.

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[EdTheEdge]

[sickfish]

Nice pic gives me hope. I have an ES AR102 Achro.

[Mike4242]

Thanks! Tony -- I've been thinking about selling my AR152 and picking up the AR102/Twilight I combo as a grab and go setup.

[Binojunky]

Just proves one thing, no need for a high end apo to get a excellent image of the red planet,outstanding sir.DA.

[grog]

What ep were you using? I was looking at mars last night with same scope and it did not look as impressive as your view!

[BillP]

Is that a single frame shot? Really nice!!

[Scott in NC]

Very nice, Mike! That's actually one of the best Mars images I've seen this season.

[Mike4242]

Thanks Binojunky! Most everything I used to get that image would be considered sub-optimal by a lot of people -- the scope, the camera, and the mount. Some have said the AVX isn't even good enough for visual with a 5" Apo, but I've gotten pretty good images with both a 5" apo and a 6" achro on the AVX. I will say it would be a different story with long exposure deep sky imaging though.

Grog -- The image is 1300 individual frames stacked from a 2 minute video containing about 3100 frames. I shot the video at f/24.5 or about 350x with what is essentially a glorified web cam. Stacking and processing the video frames into a single image has the effect of cancelling out a lot of the atmospheric turbulence, so you'll never get as good a view at the EP as you will with stacking images.

Here's a picture of my setup last night:

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[t.r.]

I was visually observing with my C102GT at the same time you imaged this. Same details caught in your image were seen visually...actually what I saw is spot on with your pic, albeit at smaller image scale @250x. No, you don't need an apo to image or to visually appreciate Mars! I will be back out with it tonight.

[aa6ww]

The OMNI-102 is the scope I always recommend to people who want to get started in Astronomy. If they cant afford the GoTo mounts, I recommend the CG-4 version but its always the Optical tube Ive recommended to people who want a nice scope to jump into the hobby. So far Ive talked 3 people into purchasing them, and they wont part with them, even when they are looking for a larger scopes.
Celestron 4" F/10 scopes have been their bench mark scopes for people wanting a rock solid scope for decades.
The OMNI 102 is the best one yet with the XLT coatings, without getting into the ED or Fluorite scopes.

..Ralph

[grog]

I settled on the Omni 102 last summer, after exhaustive research. No regrets. Big improvement on my Tasco from the '70s. Great scope.
Great photo too.

[schang]

The OMNI-102 is the scope I always recommend to people who want to get started in Astronomy.

..Ralph

I just got an older version of Celestron C102GT...a C102-AZ from year 2000. The deal was too good to pass, so I grabbed it, not necessarily for the OTA only, but for the AZ mount with slo-mo. I know, I know, it is not ideal for astronomy but I need one for terrestrial, and I can modify it with a counter weight for astronomy use as well. Best for both world, I guess.

[Mike4242]

and they wont part with them, even when they are looking for a larger scopes.

I won't be parting with mine any time soon either. I love that little scope. It's the scope that always seems to surprise me.

[Niklo]

Hello Mike,
there is no fringe visible on the picture. Have you removed it or wasn't it visible?
Independent of the fringe or not a very good image. Well done!
Clear sky,
Roland

[Mike4242]

Roland -- I used the Y800 video codec which produces a gray scale video, but still has the color information encoded in it. I use Registax to debayer the image which basically reproduces the color information. The purple fringe is barely visible after debayering, so a little tweaking of the color levels with the histogram removes it entirely.

[Niklo]

Hi Mike,
with what did you do the tweaking? With fitswork?
Clear skies,
Roland

[Mike4242]

Registax has a histogram tool to let you adjust the levels, but I typically do all of the tweaking with Gimp after I stack in Registax. Gimp is a free image processing program that allows you do almost everything PhotoShop does. http://www.gimp.org/

[Niklo]

Hi Mike,
thank you, yes I have Gimp, too but I still don't know what tweaking is and how it is done in Gimp. Which menu item do you use or is there a description in the internet?
Clear skies,
Roland

[Mike4242]

It's under Color->Levels. Here is a video series about adjusting the levels with Gimp. https://www.youtube....h?v=eV77wnHfxJg

[Scott Beith]

Remarkable image!

[Mike4242]

Thanks Scott!

[Kutno]

Nice shot Mike!

[galaxyman]

The OMNI-102 is the scope I always recommend to people who want to get started in Astronomy.

..Ralph

Same here, for I've been very impressed with mine and if you've seen my Galaxy Log videos the Omni 102 has been used for many observations of brighter galaxies.

Anyway, though I'm not a planet guy that is a wonderful image Mike


Karl
E.O.H.


Chesmont Astronomical Society - www.chesmontastro.org
Galaxy Log - http://www.youtube.c...r/GalaxyLog4565
Galaxy Log Blog - http://galaxylog.blogspot.com/
HASB - http://www.haveastellarbirthday.com
Telekit (Swayze optics) 22" F/4.5 Dob
Homemade (Parks Optics) 12.5" F/4.8 Dob
Vixen 5" f/5 reflector (new)
TMB/APM 8" f/9 Refractor”The Beast”. One great DEEP SKY achro
ES 6" f/6.5 achro. Good one
Celestron Omni XLT 102 refractor.
Celestron 10x60mm Binos

[Gary Riley]

Very nice photo Mike! I was out last night with the same scope viewing Mars and was able to make out the details you show in your image except not as finely detailed of course. I mostly observed at 250x (8mm Hyperion + 2x Ultima Barlow) and no filter of any kind. Just for fun I even pushed it to 400x (5mm Hyperion + Barlow). I actually was pleasantly surprised as to how well the image held up at that magnification! Yes, the image was softer but still not overly bad at all. And the CA in it on Mars is diffently not bad at all. For the price and overall quality, the 102mm Omni XLT is no slouch as far as being a non ED/APO scope goes.