Sunday, January 31, 2010

Mars 31st Jan 2010

Too many clouds tonight, just one quick Mars image.

Mare Crisium.

Mars 30th Jan 2010

Very cold again last night but clear throughout. The seeing was quite strange, very high frequency shimmering is the only way I can explain it.
I also cleaned my corrector plate before the session, that was fun in the freezing cold, trouble is I've got some stuff on the other-side of the glass as well. So I'll have to dismantle it completely and deal with that at a later date.
I checked the collimation as well, but since the seeing wasn't that great it's very difficult to tell.
This image was taken at the end of the session, I used my usual 5x Powermate with the filter wheel on the end of it, I also used a barlow extension tube to give it a bit more mag.
Here's a short video showing the type of seeing, 5x Powermate through IR filter, SKYnyx 2-0M.
As you can see Registax does an amazing job.

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Mars at opposition 29th Jan 2010

The seeing wasn't that great last night for the opposition, but at least it was clear.
Really cold though, my legs were freezing by the time I'd finished, started imaging at 8:40 and finished just before midnight... brrrrr!


















And here's a none filtered b/w.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Hainzel, J. Herschel, Letronne & Schiller craters.




Long live Spirit.

Gassendi & Herigonius area.

Here's another area that is very interesting... love that rille.

Clavius & Tycho 26th Jan 2010

Bit misty tonight and it got worse, but it's nice to get out and image.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Mars 23rd Jan 2010

Quick! it's clear.
Mars is almost at opposition, so it better clear up.
Average seeing, IR, Synth Green, Blue. Using 5x Powermate.



















Couldn't get rid of the horrible edge artifact :-(

Saturday, January 09, 2010

Mars 9th Jan 2010

Slightly better seeing tonight, transparency wasn't very good though. Mars was very high which probably helped with the seeing.
These are IR, synth Green, Blue images.
The same as last night, I managed a few captures and then it clouded over.

Friday, January 08, 2010

Mars from 7th Jan 2010

Very cold in the UK last night. Some places in Scotland were down to -21C.
Lowest Night Min: Benson (Berkshire): -17.7C about 20 miles away. (from BBC weather)

This image was taken using an IR and Blue filter, combined to produce a synthetic Green. (3000 frames per channel, using the best 1000 processed in Registax).
It was the best from the night, I didn't want to stay out too long as I was worried that the PC might get frosty and blow up! Plus it clouded over just as this finished and I certainly wasn't going to hang around in sub zero temperatures :-\



















That's Syrtis Major Planitia to the left just coming round the corner; see this

Tuesday, January 05, 2010

STS-129 Ascent Highlights

This is a nice piece of editing. I love the way those solid rocket boosters plunge into the ocean.

Credit: ReelNASA
Space shuttle Atlantis ascent highlights from the STS-129 mission to the International Space Station.

Monday, January 04, 2010

Mars 3rd Jan 2010

Mars from a very cold last night. The two on the left are using the 5x TV Powermate and the one on the right has a small extension tube to boost the image size.
Using C9.25 and RGB filters with an IR filter as the lum channel.
The seeing was average, but later it was worse.

The seeing got steadily worse later, so I packed up, just as well I was frozen!

As an off topic aside, I went to work today and was going around a very gentle bend in the road at about 20mph and my BMW did a complete 180 degree turn on some black ice!. Luckily there were no other cars around at the time. :-0

Sunday, January 03, 2010

Saturday, January 02, 2010

The Times Atlas of the Moon... bargain.

Found this today in an old book shop in Wantage for £3.50. The Times atlas of the Moon... bargain (do a search on the net).

It is in fact a reduced-scale and bound reprint of the Lunar Aeronautical Charts produced by the UCAC in the 1960's.

Here's Clavius crater from the previous post.

I got published!

A nice start to the new year. I got a picture of Clavius published in this months Sky & Telescope magazine.

Friday, January 01, 2010

Moonlight becomes you...

It never ceases to amaze me just how bright a full Moon can be.