As Mars approached opposition 2022, I learned some valuable lessons. 

16 videos were batch processed with identical settings to produce an animation of the planet’s rotation (Revision B). I love making these animations with my color camera, they make it easy to see how the atmospheric conditions change over time. Mars was rising up during the night from 53 to 60 degrees altitude and the video's span about 1 hour. The best 6 stacks were derotated in WinJupos to reduce noise and to allow further sharpening in the final version.

Bright stars are very useful for planetary imaging
Here’s a neat trick for users of Newtonian telescopes: you can use the diffraction spikes from the secondary mirror spider as a focusing aid. When the telescope is just close to focus, the diffraction spikes will appear as double parallel lines. The double pair will be eliminated once the star is in perfect focus. Use an exposure time of 0.5 to 5 seconds to smooth out seeing effects on the spikes. The example below shows the focus method on the star Betelgeuse. 



Recording the Airy disk
The best focus is achieved when you pick a bright star near the planet you would like to image. And since the telescope is already pointing at a star for focus, it takes very little effort to also record a small video of the star's diffraction pattern. Simply change the gain and exposure time (or use a preset profile in FireCapture). This video data is great for evaluating the seeing conditions according to the Pickering Seeing Scale. Damian Peach has great animated examples of each scale on his website (link). You can also use the video to check for turbulent thermal flow inside the telescope, and collimation (if seeing is good enough).

Below are two examples with identical gear and location, and very similar thermal conditions. Examples of poor seeing are seldom posted on the web, so I hope my animations can serve as a guide for other photographers to judge their seeing conditions. 

14 Nov 2022:
With fair seeing (5/10 on the Pickering scale), star images show the first diffraction ring and the planet disk is mostly stable.The raw video shows Mars at 57° altitude.



26 Nov 2022: 
Under very poor seeing (2/10 on the Pickering scale), the Airy disk of a star is only occasionally visible. It’s hard to see any fine detail in rippling planet and in the sharpened stack. The raw video shows Mars at 63° altitude.



Effect of seeing on the final image
On 14 November some small details are visible in the clouds that currently cover the North Pole. The dark albedo features of Mare Acidalium, Mare Erythraeum, Aurorae Sinus and Sinus Meridiani dominate this side of the planet. The brighter Argyre basin is visible near the bottom edge.

Compare that to the night of 25 November (Revision C), where seeing was very poor despite good elevation of the planet (>60°). Syrtis Major and the Hellas basin are visible though almost no fine detail is present.