8 replies to this topic

[valiant491]

Last night I observed Mars with my 7 inch mak and I was amazed at what I was seeing in the eyepiece. With excellent seeing I was able to capture some nice Mars data. A night I will never forget. I captured enough data for 19 stacked images which I then turned into an animated GIF. I'm not sure but I think I also captured some clouds just below the polar ice caps. This is the first time I have properly imaged Mars and hopefully I will get good seeing like this again. Firecapture's guiding feature also worked without problems making things much easier through the night.   

 

Equipment: Celestron AVX mount, Skywatcher Skymax 180 pro, Astromania ADC, Omegon Vtec 585c, Firecapture, 1500 gain, 1ms shutter, 5 minute videos at 172fps.

 

Stacked best %40 of frames in Autostakkert4 and sharpened in Registax 6.

 

Any comments and advice appreciated.

 

Also, I forgot to add. Is there a better way in which I can make an animation of the rotation?

Attached Thumbnails

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Edited by valiant491, 06 December 2024 - 01:01 PM.

[RedLionNJ]

Nice results for 180mm.

 

You should be able to increase the frame rate quite dramatically with a much smaller ROI and a cutout. If FireCapture is issuing appropriate drive corrections, then you might be able to get your ROI down to 320 x 320, or even smaller - that should really increase your FPS.

[valiant491]

Nice results for 180mm.

 

You should be able to increase the frame rate quite dramatically with a much smaller ROI and a cutout. If FireCapture is issuing appropriate drive corrections, then you might be able to get your ROI down to 320 x 320, or even smaller - that should really increase your FPS.

Thank you, you're right about that. I've thought about using my ZWO ASI224mc but with the imx585 sensor I don't need a barlow. I was cautious about the guiding but next time I would be better off with a smaller ROI. 

[Borodog]

If you turn on Normalize Stack in AS!4 it should reduce the flashing a bit.

 

Very nice result.

[RedLionNJ]

Last night I observed Mars with my 7 inch mak and I was amazed at what I was seeing in the eyepiece. With excellent seeing I was able to capture some nice Mars data. A night I will never forget. I captured enough data for 19 stacked images which I then turned into an animated GIF. I'm not sure but I think I also captured some clouds just below the polar ice caps. This is the first time I have properly imaged Mars and hopefully I will get good seeing like this again. Firecapture's guiding feature also worked without problems making things much easier through the night.   

 

Any comments and advice appreciated.

 

Also, I forgot to add. Is there a better way in which I can make an animation of the rotation?

Since we don't know how you made this one (which isn't bad, btw), that's a hard question to answer.

 

Mike's suggestion of normalizing the stack in AS!4 will certainly help make all frames the same intensity, but you might want to consider waveSharp (free, with v2.0 being released today) as a good choice for creating animations such as a planet revolving.

[valiant491]

Since we don't know how you made this one (which isn't bad, btw), that's a hard question to answer.

 

Mike's suggestion of normalizing the stack in AS!4 will certainly help make all frames the same intensity, but you might want to consider waveSharp (free, with v2.0 being released today) as a good choice for creating animations such as a planet revolving.

Sorry, I forgot to mention, I made this one using PIPP. 

[KMH]

Very nice!

 

Kevin

[kevinbreen]

Wow, amazing results

[valiant491]

Also I've just read that there is a growing dust storm at the north polar ice cap, is that what I've caught as well or are those just clouds?