Now that Mars has breached 9 arcsec it is a bit more interesting and I tried a softer (for me) approach to the capture I got this morning with the 14.25" f/3.56, Paracorr 1, 5x Powermate and ZWO 224MC combination I've been working with this year. It has a tiny bit of astigmatism I think but collimation is interesting to say the least. It also suffers from a couple of slight zones and correction error compared to my better optics but the aperture seems to make up for that loss when things go right - at least to some degree.
Anyway, I'm a bit more pleased with this mornings result than yesterdays. Since I didn't start imaging until after 6 am local time I only took two clips and this is from the better one as I could determine. It is a 25% stack from 75,000 frames presented at capture size and 200% for different size screens - things look different on my iPad vs computer vs phone so not sure there is a best viewing size.
Mike Spooner
UTC 1319 October 31, 2024
In my old vein of overprocessing I also have a 15% stack with a bit more punch (and maybe better color balance) but I think I like the softer approach better.
