Contains:  Solar system body or event
Mars Nearing Opposition, Michael Southam

Mars Nearing Opposition

Mars Nearing Opposition, Michael Southam

Mars Nearing Opposition

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Description

Ventured into my observatory in the wee small hours to grab a few shots of the almost full moon. Realizing Mars is nearing opposition, I swung the scope East a few degrees to take a few shots of our red neighbor.

I've never been that interested in planetary, mostly because I've never been able to get decent results. I've always put this down to imaging with a DSLR as my long focal length is perfect for this type of shot. I think the reason I was able to get good detail here is the epiphany I had while centering Mars in the fov. I realized that to minimize atmospheric distortion, in each frame, I need the exposure to be as quick as possible. To do this, I cranked the ISO up to max (12k) and reduced the exposure to the point where contrast was optimal (about 1/250th) This is the best 10 of 1000 frames.

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