13 replies to this topic

[Kokatha man]

We decided to set up and image last night but probably shouldn't have, I went down with covid for the first time 11 days earlier and a test today shows that I still haven't shaken it off fully yet...but thankfully Pattie (who gave it to me!  ) got an "all clear" test result a few days back. 

 

I feel a bit under the weather today (probably from being out in the cold last night) but there was no way we were going to get up in the early hours for Neptune or Saturn this morning! 

 

I'm hoping to spend a bit of time on Neptune this year if we can but Saturn can wait...I'm not that interested unless there are bright or dark storm spots detectable...and possibly attempt some of the smaller moons in transit opportunities...Enceladus & Mimas have eluded us over the years and of course in the Sthn. Hemisphere there are no Titan transits this year...

 

We've found seeing to be pretty poor just after Sunset since our last successful Mars session from home 6.5 weeks earlier (May 12th) and last night was no different...after collimating on Regulus, which was easily within the same FOV of the finder, we ran off a couple of captures before I resorted to the most effective method for focusing Neptune's small disk by increasing the gamma (which I have promoted for many years btw) and it did help my tired eyes in the presented seeing.

 

At such a small apparent diameter (5.1") with the seeing nothing out of the ordinary I'm satisfied enough: I present that last Mars from the 12th May as well here when Mars was 6.1" - it is a fairly similar vista although Mars had rotated further in the earlier image: a couple of the Tharsis Montes are visible in the latest image also but it appears as if there is much more cloud over a larger area, which included V. Marineris etc...the disks are scaled to each other btw.

 

Relatively satisfying in hindsight but as said it might well be the last Mars session for this apparition from us.

 

                           

[Lacaille]

Superb! Well Darryl , I think there might be a dust storm in Chryse just on the eastern limb about 2 o’clock, which I noticed last night in the IR (not posted here yet) so it might be worth seeing if we can add some data in the next few days. But do take care of yourselves and recover well!

Re seeing at sunset, I found brief periods about an hour after sunset were a little better, but in general it’s been rough, even as the altitude increases slightly.

[Space Cowboy]

Remarkable detail for such a small target Darryl  

[Mike Spooner]

Really excellent, Darryl!   

[JMP]

Beautiful and inspirational images!

[KMH]

Wow - a terrific result!  I hope you get better soon.

 

Kevin

[Kokatha man]

Thanks to Mark, Stuart, Mike, Jeff and Kevin...and to those who "Liked" the image also - much appreciated!

 

I'm afraid it'll be up to you and others to continue to monitor Mars for the next week or so Mark - there is some rainy weather coming in this afternoon and it'll run through all this week...

 

Apropos your seeing comments we ran 5 captures, after the first 2 the seeing did improve somewhat...from about 6:15pm which is about an hour after Sunset, so I concur with your comments there. 

 

I've also got to take a bit more care with my (always) over-impatient desire to get back to full operating mode  so any further imaging will have that consideration also!

[John Boudreau]

Superb results Darryl & Pat!  

 

Take care of yourself and recover soon! Plenty of planetary imaging ahead for this year!

 

 

[Ittaku]

Great result!

[dcaponeii]

Hope you get over the COVID without any issues.  Lovely results on Mars.  I also like your descriptions that sound like you feel you should chuck the whole mess, and then deliver a truly superb image in spite of that!!

[Kiwi Paul]

Great result Darryl for such a small disk.

When I saw what you called cloud, I couldn't help thinking that it looks like dust - it has that tone. I suppose a blue image would help that identification (another issue is whether it is dust storm season?).

Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

Cheers Paul

[Kokatha man]

Thanks to John, Con, Don and Ron...errr, I mean Paul - got carried away with the rhyming..!   Thanks also for all the additional "Likes" posted! Mark has spoken of (possible) dust activity in Chryse above, but I'm confident that the majority of the area in our image is cloud cover Paul.

 

Hopefully Mark or someone else on ALPO-Japan can expand upon this, but as I said earlier we have rain for all of this week even if we were up to it to image.

[Spacedude4040]

Excellent, Darryl!   
Hope all is well now.

Mike

[Kokatha man]

Thanks Mike - and for extra "Likes" posted also!

 

Got the "all-clear" test yesterday but still not 100%, but Neptune and Saturn might be possible in a week or two..!