1092 replies to this topic

[Lacaille]

Took my first image of mars last night with my 5.1" telescope, I think it turned out alright, seeing could have been a lot better, and I ran out of laptop storage so I could only capture 6,000 frames. Not exactly sure why the colour of the polar ice cap wasn't more obvious, maybe its something to do with the seeing, it was a hot 22 degree Celsius night, not ideal conditions, but there are better nights ahead, wish me luck.





Mars olympus mons.jpg






Nexstar 130slt, ASI 678mc,Celestron X-cel 3X Barlow lens

Hi there, looks like you are getting good data with that set up, but the colour balance is a bit off. I wonder if you used an IR Cut filter? The camera is very sensitive in the IR so without said filter it is hard to get a good colour balance. I also see you are using a 3X Barlow so you are significantly oversampling - using a 2X Barlow would give you close to optimal sampling for that camera with that scope, and allow much higher frame rates at lower gain.

Mark

Edited by Lacaille, 16 January 2025 - 07:08 PM.

[Doug_Hole]

Hi there, looks like you are getting good data with that set up, but the colour balance is a bit off. I wonder if you used an IR Cut filter? The camera is very sensitive in the IR so without said filter it is hard to get a good colour balance. I also see you are using a 3X Barlow so you are significantly oversampling - using a 2X Barlow would give you close to optimal sampling for that camera with that scope, and allow much higher frame rates at lower gain.

Mark

Thanks for your advice! I didn't use an IR cut filter, and I definitely noticed the colour was worse than my usual images! Might this be a collimation issue? I recently recollimated my secondary and primary mirror, but they looked to be in near perfect colimation. I don't have a 2x Barlow lens, should I continue to use the 3x or should I go without one?  

[boost_fae_bams]

Hi all. Posting my Mars opposition attempt with the Heritage 130p (manually tracked again, Santa didn't come this year)

 

Seeing was pretty excellent last night in Northern Spain, however I had a short window of about an hour to setup, capture and pack away. Mars was sitting about 45degrees. 

 

Heritage 130p, AZ5 manual mount, ASI224MC, IR cut filter, 3x Barlow.

 

About 12 captures of about 10 seconds each (I aim for 488x488 at 120fps in Sharpcap) stacked in PIPP then processed thereafter in Astrosurface. For fun I also did a few more captures about 20 mins later and made a little gif (click to see) showing the planet's rotation between the two images.

 

The result is the best image I've yet captured of the planet. It still leaves a lot wanting in terms of post processing but to be honest I don't think I could have captured anything better with my setup. I'm very pleased to have gotten a recognisable image, with actual surface features and pole, and they al align with a Stellarium simulation of the planet at that moment.

 

Looking forward to seeing some more user pictures of this beautiful rock around it's opposition. Clear skies!

Attached Thumbnails

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Edited by boost_fae_bams, 17 January 2025 - 05:46 AM.

[Lacaille]

Thanks for your advice! I didn't use an IR cut filter, and I definitely noticed the colour was worse than my usual images! Might this be a collimation issue? I recently recollimated my secondary and primary mirror, but they looked to be in near perfect colimation. I don't have a 2x Barlow lens, should I continue to use the 3x or should I go without one?

Hi again, I would not be too concerned about collimation looking at that image, but a cheap IR Cut filter will help with colour.

You want to be around f10 with that camera and I believe your scope is native f5. A 2X Barlow would be ideal but you’ve got decent results with 3X. If you had no Barlow you would see your max frame rate shoot up but you would be under sampling and potentially losing detail. I suppose it depends how much you want to push for improvement and how much you want to spend. Note that you don’t have to buy an expensive 2X Barlow- the actual quality doesn’t make a detectable difference, yet you can spend hundreds of dollars or rather less than a hundred on such an item!

[Bob Campbell]

Hi again, I would not be too concerned about collimation looking at that image, but a cheap IR Cut filter will help with colour.

You want to be around f10 with that camera and I believe your scope is native f5. A 2X Barlow would be ideal but you’ve got decent results with 3X. If you had no Barlow you would see your max frame rate shoot up but you would be under sampling and potentially losing detail. I suppose it depends how much you want to push for improvement and how much you want to spend. Note that you don’t have to buy an expensive 2X Barlow- the actual quality doesn’t make a detectable difference, yet you can spend hundreds of dollars or rather less than a hundred on such an item!

 

$65

https://www.svbony.c...nt-barlow-lens/

 

$25

 

https://www.svbony.c...-2x-achromatic/

 

I think I went with the second one, but its been awhile and I can now be at f=5x pixel size without one.

 

Bob

[Bob Campbell]

Hi all. Posting my Mars opposition attempt with the Heritage 130p (manually tracked again, Santa didn't come this year)

 

Seeing was pretty excellent last night in Northern Spain, however I had a short window of about an hour to setup, capture and pack away. Mars was sitting about 45degrees. 

 

Heritage 130p, AZ5 manual mount, ASI224MC, IR cut filter, 3x Barlow.

 

About 12 captures of about 10 seconds each (I aim for 488x488 at 120fps in Sharpcap) stacked in PIPP then processed thereafter in Astrosurface. For fun I also did a few more captures about 20 mins later and made a little gif (click to see) showing the planet's rotation between the two images.

 

The result is the best image I've yet captured of the planet. It still leaves a lot wanting in terms of post processing but to be honest I don't think I could have captured anything better with my setup. I'm very pleased to have gotten a recognisable image, with actual surface features and pole, and they al align with a Stellarium simulation of the planet at that moment.

 

Looking forward to seeing some more user pictures of this beautiful rock around it's opposition. Clear skies!

truly amazing result for what you have to work with. Congratulations!

 

Bob

[Craigar]

Almost feels like I've been foiled again with lots of weather problems including slow but sure temperature dropping = dew! and dodging clouds BUT gratefuly no gusty wind a above average seeing intermittently - and a problem with my 6" ES Mak Newt that seems sort of like astigmatism but not exactly and seems to worse closer to zenith - and I collimated it WITHOUT it riding on the mount so probably fair chance it's  tube flexure that is now worse sense I piggy backed a Orion ST80 & guidescope on the rings handle - so first step I need to re check collimation with it on the mount - of course it's under the sky on the COLD side of my back door - extra shivering..

 

 

Here's Mars yesterday from Los Angeles

 

Mars animation 01-16-25 11.57utc ES 6" Mak Newt > 3x Svbony > QHYiii 485C 2.9um

 

 

Mars 01-16-25 11.00.42utc ES 6" Mak Newt > 3x Svbony > QHYiii 485C 2.9um

 

Same data as previous image, but didn't "resharpen" with WaveSharp - only Registax

Mars 01-16-25 11.00.42utc ES 6" Mak Newt > 3x Svbony > QHYiii 485C 2.9um

 

 

Edited by Craigar, 17 January 2025 - 11:23 AM.

[Doug_Hole]

Hi again, I would not be too concerned about collimation looking at that image, but a cheap IR Cut filter will help with colour.

You want to be around f10 with that camera and I believe your scope is native f5. A 2X Barlow would be ideal but you’ve got decent results with 3X. If you had no Barlow you would see your max frame rate shoot up but you would be under sampling and potentially losing detail. I suppose it depends how much you want to push for improvement and how much you want to spend. Note that you don’t have to buy an expensive 2X Barlow- the actual quality doesn’t make a detectable difference, yet you can spend hundreds of dollars or rather less than a hundred on such an item!

Hi Mark, thanks for your further advice, it is much appreciated. Today I got the ir/uv filter, and I'm looking forward to testing it out on mars and the other planets. I don't really have the option to get a  2x Barlow soon, so I think I will have to work with the 3x and hope for good seeing here in Sydney. I appreciate the help, and if there's anything else I should know, please tell me. 

 

Alex

Edited by Doug_Hole, 18 January 2025 - 04:42 AM.

[Marcin_78]

Hi all. Posting my Mars opposition attempt with the Heritage 130p (manually tracked again, Santa didn't come this year)

 

Seeing was pretty excellent last night in Northern Spain, however I had a short window of about an hour to setup, capture and pack away. Mars was sitting about 45degrees. 

 

(2) Heritage 130p, AZ5 manual mount, ASI224MC, IR cut filter, 3x Barlow.

 

(3) About 12 captures of about 10 seconds each (I aim for 488x488 at 120fps in Sharpcap) stacked in PIPP then processed thereafter in Astrosurface. For fun I also did a few more captures about 20 mins later and made a little gif (click to see) showing the planet's rotation between the two images.

 

The result is the best image I've yet captured of the planet. It still leaves a lot wanting in terms of post processing but (4) to be honest I don't think I could have captured anything better with my setup. (1) I'm very pleased to have gotten a recognisable image, with actual surface features and pole, and they al align with a Stellarium simulation of the planet at that moment.

 

(5) Looking forward to seeing some more user pictures of this beautiful rock around it's opposition. Clear skies!

 

(1) This is the most important thing – your satisfaction! Any kind of astrophotography is cool because it easily yields results better than whatever you could see with the same telescope visually (through an eyepiece).

 

(2) Congratulations for finding a target without tracking in such a small FOV! I know how hard it is because I have no tracking myself and I started with a similar astro camera.

 

You can make your life easier by using a camera with more pixels – at the same resolution in arcs/pixel the FOV will be bigger. First screenshot is for your current setup and the second screenshot is for your telescope WITHOUT a Barlow, but with a camera that I use myself:

 

 

 

(3) Am I correct that the total number of frames captured was 14400 (12 x 10s * 120 fps)? How many of those frames were stacked and how many were discarded?

 

(4) I think there is still room for slight improvement. My biggest aperture is 114mm, so slightly smaller than yours, but my Mars is a little better. In general bigger aperture should yield better results.

 

Here's Mars from last night (2025.01.17) captured with my 114/900 Dobson + ZWO ASI715MA + IR-cut filter (from 900 color JPGs the program AutoStakkert chose 300 best and stacked them; I did sharpening in RegiStax 6):
 

 

My Mars is smaller than yours, even though my resolution in arcs/pixels was slightly better (0.33 arcs/pixel vs. 0.4 arcs/pixel), so I'm guessing that you used resampling 2x. My Mars up-sized to 200% looks this way:
 

 

Not much better, but still (with slightly smaller aperture).

 

In your case you would need my camera and a Barlow 2x in order to get maximum possible details:

 

 

(5) Please, remember that the current opposition is one of the bad ones. I can't wait for the years 2033 and 2035 – Mars at opposition will be MUCH bigger then. Check out this post:
https://www.cloudyni...075/?p=13361191

 

Clear skies!

 

EDIT:
For the record – I was capturing my color JPGs at shutter speed of 7ms, so theoretically it should give me almost 143 fps, but in reality those 900 pictures were captured in 14.68 seconds, so it was only 61 fps. In this case my ROI was 736x638 because I had trouble making it work at my usual 640x480, so I just dragged my mouse to set-up a ROI on the fly.

Edited by Marcin_78, 18 January 2025 - 02:20 PM.

[Bob Campbell]

(1) This is the most important thing – your satisfaction! Any kind of astrophotography is cool because it easily yields results better than whatever you could see with the same telescope visually (through an eyepiece).

 

(2) Congratulations for finding a target without tracking in such a small FOV! I know how hard it is because I have no tracking myself and I started with a similar astro camera.

 

You can make your life easier by using a camera with more pixels – at the same resolution in arcs/pixel the FOV will be bigger. First screenshot is for your current setup and the second screenshot is for your telescope WITHOUT a Barlow, but with a camera that I use myself:

 

01. Small FOV.jpg

 

02. Big FOV.jpg

 

(3) Am I correct that the total number of frames captured was 14400 (12 x 10s * 120 fps)? How many of those frames were stacked and how many were discarded?

 

(4) I think there is still room for slight improvement. My biggest aperture is 114mm, so slightly smaller than yours, but my Mars is a little better. In general bigger aperture should yield better results.

 

Here's Mars from last night (2025.01.17) captured with my 114/900 Dobson + ZWO ASI715MA + IR-cut filter (from 900 color JPGs the program AutoStakkert chose 300 best and stacked them; I did sharpening in RegiStax 6):
 

03. 2025-01-17-2130_7-U - Mars - stack 300.jpg

 

My Mars is smaller than yours, even though my resolution in arcs/pixels was slightly better (0.33 arcs/pixel vs. 0.4 arcs/pixel), so I'm guessing that you used resampling 2x. My Mars up-sized to 200% looks this way:
 

04. 2025-01-17-2130_7-U - Mars - stack 300 - 200%.jpg

 

Not much better, but still (with slightly smaller aperture).

 

In your case you would need my camera and a Barlow 2x in order to get maximum possible details:

 

05. medium FOV - max details.jpg

 

(5) Please, remember that the current opposition is one of the bad ones. I can't wait for the years 2033 and 2035 – Mars at opposition will be MUCH bigger then. Check out this post:
https://www.cloudyni...075/?p=13361191

 

Clear skies!

 

EDIT:
For the record – I was capturing my color JPGs at shutter speed of 7ms, so theoretically it should give me almost 143 fps, but in reality those 900 pictures were captured in 14.68 seconds, so it was only 61 fps. In this case my ROI was 736x638 because I had trouble making it work at my usual 640x480, so I just dragged my mouse to set-up a ROI on the fly.

These untracked images of yours and boost's are really excellent!

 

Bob

[vafanas]

Greetings!

 

Such a nice images from small telescopes!

All this really inspired me to go out and give it a try.

 

 

This image was taken on Jan 14.

6 inch Mak + 2x Barlow, ASI 183 camera.

 

I liked this Mars's hemisphere - lots of detail.

 

Regards,

Vladimir

[Bob Campbell]

Greetings!

 

Such a nice images from small telescopes!

All this really inspired me to go out and give it a try.

 

Mars_14Jan25.jpg

 

This image was taken on Jan 14.

6 inch Mak + 2x Barlow, ASI 183 camera.

 

I liked this Mars's hemisphere - lots of detail.

 

Regards,

Vladimir

Beautiful! I'm jealous! The whole US is under atrocious seeing conditions (as measured by the jet stream at 40000 ft). Edit: except for a sliver in Northern California and surrounds. There are pockets but only regions near the equator are decent. Phoenix/Scottsdale in the winter is usually like that (purple to black).

 

 

Bob

Edited by Bob Campbell, 19 January 2025 - 09:59 AM.

[Craigar]

I must be in a "sliver",    had really good seeing last night here in 90260 Los Angeles suberb.. and I had most of my rig cooperating, but fighting low data storage.. caused Sharpcap to hang & crash more than once..

 

Mars 01-19-25 0920utc 1.5x drizzle

 

6" ES Mak Newt F/4.8 731mm FL
3x Svbony 3 element APO"shorty" barlow
QHYiii 485C 2.9um
iOptron iEq45 mount
Processing: PiPP + AutoStakkert!3 (drizzle 1.5) + registax6

 

Mars 01-19-25 0920utc Stretched (cut off) bottom of histogram, no drizzle

 

6" ES Mak Newt F/4.8 731mm FL
3x Svbony 3 element APO"shorty" barlow
QHYiii 485C 2.9um
iOptron iEq45 mount
Processing: PiPP + AutoStakkert!3  + registax6

Edited by Craigar, 20 January 2025 - 12:22 AM.

[KiwiRay]

Greetings!

 

Such a nice images from small telescopes!

All this really inspired me to go out and give it a try.

 

Mars_14Jan25.jpg

 

This image was taken on Jan 14.

6 inch Mak + 2x Barlow, ASI 183 camera.

 

I liked this Mars's hemisphere - lots of detail.

 

Regards,

Vladimir

A nice level of detail there, Vladimir! It looks a little noisy and might benefit from some denoise or a little Gaussian blur. (It's also mirror-reversed)

[KiwiRay]

I must be in a "sliver",    had really good seeing last night here in 90260.. and I had most of my rig cooperating, but fighting low data storage.. crashed Sharpcap more than once..

 

Mars 01-19-25 0920utc

Mars 01-19-25 0920-RxDmaskHot160crop230x.png

 

6" ES Mak Newt F/4.8 731mm FL
3x Svbony 3 element APO"shorty" barlow
QHYiii 485C 2.9um
iOptron iEq45 mount
Processing: PiPP + AutoStakkert!3 + registax6

The Martian clouds stand out really well in this one, Craigar. Nice work with the colour balance.
 

[Craigar]

The Martian clouds stand out really well in this one, Craigar. Nice work with the colour balance.
 

Thank You, it's tricky (for me) to get it all right and last night was proof again that the seeing is most important = if the stars are twinkling quickly DON'T SHOOT = poor seeing..

I'm slowly learning and learned more today again from re-reading Tulloch's GREAT planetary tutorial/FAQ https://www.cloudyni...-december-2024/

 

Tonight I'll have nothing to capture (and nothing to set up, tear down,etc. in my backyard), just a thick blanket of clouds.. probably for the best as I got a pretty good "work out" capturing and processing over the last few days , and most of it was medicore (except last nights good seeing, when there were clear openings between clouds)

Edited by Craigar, 20 January 2025 - 12:23 AM.

[Night Nurse]

Like with the Jupiter small bore challenge, this image had an extra layer of challenge in that the camera used was my Samsung Galaxy S24. It took me a few nights to try to figure out to get a large enough image that I would be able to actually pull some detail out of. Anyways, here's the red planet. Image was made from my 6" Celestron SCT, Samsung Galaxy S24. The image was processed using PIPP, Autostakkert, Registax6, and GIMP.

 

 

[Bob Campbell]

 if the stars are twinkling quickly DON'T SHOOT = poor seeing..

If I applied that strictly, I would *never* shoot.

 

Look at the lucky folks in N. Cali...for tonight...looks pretty sweet. Clear, too.

 

 

Bob

Edited by Bob Campbell, 20 January 2025 - 09:16 AM.

[Conor Maclaud]

Hi guys,

 

Today I've got some nice seeing conditions, so want to share my results.

 

 

14 frames in the animation this time. 

Location: L'viv, Ukraine.

Equipment: telescope Orion EON 120ED + IR/UV cut filter + QHYCCD 462-C cam. Focal length around 2.5m.
2025-1-20 00:40 - 02:01 (UTC +2).
Stacking (5% of 30000 per video), 14 videos with 240sec duration.

 

Thanks,

Oleksandr.

Attached Thumbnails

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[Bob Campbell]

 

 

Today I've got some nice seeing conditions, so want to share my results.

 

 

 

Location: L'viv, Ukraine.

Thanks,

Oleksandr.

Beautiful! To say you have nice seeing is an understatement! Western Ukraine is below 10mph at 40000 ft. One of the best places in the world right now.

 

 

Bob
 

[Doug_Hole]

Here is my best shot of mars so far. I have to thank lacaille for recommending the ir/uv filter, because it has heavily improved my results! Mars was at 28 degrees altitude, and very pretty happy with this image, I can clearly see valles marineris and olympus mons, and the polar ice cap, and my colour is alot better than my previous image. Below I've put a sharper version and a regular, please let me know which is best and if theres anything else I can do in processing to further improve this image. 

 

5% of 57,000 frames stacked 

 

Mars  ASI 678MC 

 

 

Mars ASI 678MC (sharper)

 

 

 

Nexstar 130slt, Asi 678mc,zwo ir/uv cut filte, X-cel 3x barlow 

Edited by Doug_Hole, 20 January 2025 - 08:25 PM.

[KiwiRay]

Hi guys,

 

Today I've got some nice seeing conditions, so want to share my results.

 

 

14 frames in the animation this time. 

Location: L'viv, Ukraine.

Equipment: telescope Orion EON 120ED + IR/UV cut filter + QHYCCD 462-C cam. Focal length around 2.5m.
2025-1-20 00:40 - 02:01 (UTC +2).
Stacking (5% of 30000 per video), 14 videos with 240sec duration.

 

Thanks,

Oleksandr.

The cloud over Elysium Mons stands out very clearly. Nice work, Oleksandr!

[Lacaille]

Thanks Doug Hole for the shout-out!

The details are great, and there is indeed an indication of Olympus, which is pretty impressive. That 3X Barlow doesn't seem to be holding you back!

Your colours are better, but I think you can push a bit further with your colour processing. In something like GIMP or Photoshop, try increasing the blue and reducing the red, to get a whiter SPC. The blue will also help bring out any possible cloud effects. Try also an increase in saturation. (BTW, I am assuming you stack in Autostakkert - have you selected RGB align in the set up for the stacking process?).

Any way, good work!

Regards

Mark

Edited by Lacaille, 21 January 2025 - 05:36 AM.

[Doug_Hole]

Thanks Doug Hole for the shout-out!

 

The details are great, and there is indeed an indication of Olympus, which is pretty impressive.   That 3X Barlow doesn't seem to be holding you back!  

 

Your colours are better, but I think you can push a bit further with your colour processing. In something like GIMP or Photoshop, try increasing the blue and reducing the red, to get a whiter SPC. The blue will also help bring out any possible cloud effects. Try also an increase in saturation. (BTW, I am assuming you stack in Autostakkert - have you selected RGB align in the set up for the stacking process?).

 

Any way, good work!

 

Regards

 

Mark

Thank you Mark! I do RGB align in autostakkert 3, although I made no further colour adjustments later in processing, I will try to make those adjustments you recommended. BTW, this is what the image looks like with histogram balance in registax 6, I thought there wasn't enough red in the image. 

 

Mars RGB balance 

[Doug_Hole]

Here is the RBG align (with flip and rotate)

Edited by Doug_Hole, 22 January 2025 - 12:42 AM.