Mars 3 Dec 2022 - 40 min WinJ Composite (Seb Lukas)

Contains: Solar system body or event

Mars 3 Dec 2022 - 40 min WinJ Composite

Acquisition type: Lucky imaging

Mars 3 Dec 2022 - 40 min WinJ Composite

Acquisition type: Lucky imaging

Mars nearing Opposition - early hours of Sun 4 Dec 2022 AEDT.

Finally.. a decent number of frames to work with. I had high hopes for this weekend as the weather forecast called for clear skies and low winds. Commenced the session half past midnight local time and was greeted by partly overcast conditions with Mars peeking through fast moving patchy clouds in the northeast. Waxing gibbous Moon illuminated the sky 60 degrees west of the planet.

The first hour was quite frustrating with unsteady seeing every time transparency dropped, found it hard to confirm optimum focus with only very brief periods of stability. On a good note I did not have to adjust ADC settings from previous nights, initial check showed good alignment. Shortly after 1.20 am the clouds have disappeared and the seeing drastically improved. I continued recording to take advantage of good conditions, live preview started showing greater detail which allowed me to lock in good focus.

This view combines ten consecutive four minute stacks captured between 1:23 and 2:04 am, approximately 21k frames. Valles Marineris is crossing the terminator with Nilokeras and Solis Lacus the two prominent features in the north and south-west respectively. Olympus Mons is just peeking its head on the north-western limb; eastern part of the planet appears dusty. White polar cloud dominates the far north.

Pretty happy with this result noting that we are less than a week away from 2022 Opposition. Martian disk is already beginning to decrease, so it was great to capture it at 17.2".

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The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

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Mars 3 Dec 2022 - 40 min WinJ Composite

Mars 3 Dec 2022 - 40 min WinJ Composite

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Mars 3 Dec 2022 - 40 min WinJ Composite

Mars 3 Dec 2022 - 40 min WinJ Composite

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