Mars @ Opposition 2020 (KuriousGeorge)

Mars @ Opposition 2020

My first try at a planet for many years. (-:

This was sort of a challenge for me. As you know, shooting planets is a totally different animal than shooting DSOs.

For this project, I inserted a Tele Vue 2x Powermate betweent the MOAG and filter wheel. Many thanks to my local buddy Chris and PreciseParts for their expertise on desiging the adapter to just use the Powermate optical element for a very compact and elegant package. This permits 0.1"/pixel.

Also many thank to Damian Peach for helping jump-start my planetary imaging knowledge for large apertures.

Here's a very high-level summary of the processing. Seeing was only about 2" on this day, so there's some opportunities for improvement.

1. ASI 6200 set for 10 ms frames with gain = 250. This yielded a 75% histogram in SharpCap.

2. I aimed to capture in less than 1 hour to help stay within the WinJUPOS capabilities for Mars.

3. Focus obtained using Milky Way stars and a V-Curve fit.

4. Thirty (30) 60s segments were captured @ 800x600 with an Astronomik ProPlanet 742 IR 50mm. Each capture yielded about 737 frames with my current USB 2.0 links.

5. Ten (10) 60s segments were captured @ 800x600 with an Astrodon Blue 50mm.

6. AutoStakkert into .tif files. 25% best frames used for each sequence.

7. Sharpen in Registax. Here I only used Layer 2 = 60.

8. De-rotate and combine in WinJUPOS. Result is IR (G) B (synthetic green made from IR and B).

9. Color balance using Registax.

10. Very minor sharpening and noise reduction in Photoshop using USM, Smart Sharpen and Neat Image.

I look forward to hopefully trying again under steadier skies. (-:

Original
Final
B

B

Description: Updated processing with the best 1,700 IR and 800 B frames. Trade-off added detail with added noise.

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