The Moon Visits Venus Again

Yeah, I know. It's been forever.

I stepped out on the back porch this evening and saw this combination of the Moon and Venus, and couldn't let it go past.

That's Mars in the lower right!

Mars 2012.4

Another cloudy day on the Red Planet. This shot is resized 150%.

Heritage Park Observatory, Cedar Park, TX

Camera: PGR Flea2

Scope: Celestron C11, TeleVue 2.5x Powermate

Mount: Celestron CI-700

Filter: Orion LRGB

Software: AstroIIDC, RegiStax, Photoshop

Mars 2012.3

I've never seen clouds like these.

Heritage Park Observatory, Cedar Park, TX

Camera: PGR Flea2

Scope: Celestron C11, TeleVue 2.5x Powermate

Mount: Celestron CI-700

Filter: Orion LRGB

Software: AstroIIDC, RegiStax, Photoshop

Mars 2012.2

Better conditions, but still not as good as I would have hoped. I've seen the blue on the sides in other folk's pictures, so I guess it's a real thing and not an imaging artifact.

Heritage Park Observatory, Cedar Park, TX

Camera: PGR Flea2

Scope: Celestron C11, TeleVue 2.5x Powermate

Mount: Celestron CI-700

Filter: Orion LRGB

Software: AstroIIDC, RegiStax, Photoshop

Mars 2012.1

That's just, ungh. But it's as big as Mars is going to get this year. Really crappy seeing for the opposition--maybe tonight will be better.

Heritage Park Observatory, Cedar Park, TX
Camera: PGR Flea2
Scope: Celestron C11, TeleVue 2.5x Powermate
Mount: Celestron CI-700
Filter: Orion LRGB
Software: AstroIIDC, RegiStax, Photoshop

February Mars Reprocessed

Went back over Sunday night's imagines and cleaned up the processing. Turned out better than I first thought!



Enlarged 150%:



I always wonder, "What am I looking at?" Here's a labeled view:

February Mars

A rare night of reasonable seeing. Caught Mars right overhead.

Spirit

Mars opposition was this week, and we're completely socked in. So here's a comic from XKCD to fill the time.

Mars 2010.2

I opened the roof on the observatory at sunset, and by the time I got out to shoot this at 1:00 a.m., the scope was covered in frost. I had to hit the corrector on the LX200 with the hair dryer a couple of times to keep the dew under control. What was interesting was how much the heat from the hair dryer would degrade the image. It took several minutes after clearing it for the image to settle back down. Of course by then the dew wasn't far behind, so I had to work quickly.

ClearSkyClock had forecast 4/5 seeing, and that seemed about right. You can see the difference between tonight's and last night's shot.

Mars is still just 13 arc-seconds across in this shot.

Heritage Park Observatory, Cedar Park, TX
Camera: DMK21AF04.US
Scope: Meade 10" LX200, TeleVue 2.5x Powermate
Mount: Meade LX200
Filter: Orion LRGB
Software: AstroIIDC, RegiStax, Photoshop

Happy New Year, and the First Mars of the Year

Has it been two years already? Here's the first shot from the 2010 Mars opposition. Kinda mushy skies for New Year's Eve. It had been cloudy early, but clear after midnight.

Heritage Park Observatory, Cedar Park, TX
Camera: DMK21AF04.US
Scope: Meade 10" LX200, TeleVue 2.5x Powermate
Mount: Meade LX200
Filter: Orion LRGB
Software: AstroIIDC, RegiStax, Photoshop

Eleventh Mars of the Year

Same scope setup, and shot just minutes after the tenth Mars, but this time in LRGB with the DMK21AF firewire camera. Much cleaner. Both were 2000 frames and processed in Astro IIDC. Sure, LRGB takes a little longer, but the results speak for themselves. I'm very happy with this Mars shot.

Tenth Mars of the Year

Getting much smaller and distinctly gibbous two months after opposition. Shot with the SPC900NC at f/25 under pretty steady seeing, 3/5.

Eighth, Ninth Mars of the Year

First light through the DMK21AF04.US using the Orion LRGB filters. All I can say is, it ain't the same as the SPC900NC! Getting the color balance is trick-ee. I'm driving the camera and processing with Astro IIDC.

We're on the back side of a cold front right now--temperature's dropped 15 degrees since sunset so you can imagine what the seeing is like.


This second stack is a little better. It's noiser--I kept the shutter fast to try to "freeze" the poor seeing, and so had to boost the gain. It's a trade-off, I know, and I'm not sure which is the better way to go.

Seventh Mars of the Year

Or as Linda calls it, The Martian Chronicles.

Sixth Mars of the Year (Dam Mars)

Shot this one through Barry's 10" LX200GPS at the dam last night. It was dam cold with the wind blowing.

Fifth Mars of the Year

Almost didn't stay up to shoot this, but I'm glad now that I did. Best one yet.

Fourth Mars of the Year

Mars' closest approach to Earth was this week.

I was feeling bummed about this picture, thinking I should be getting more detail until I looked at this simulated view from Calsky of Mars through a 10" telescope:


I guess mine's not so bad after all.

Third Mars of the Year

Shot this at 1:20 a.m. when Mars was directly overhead. The forecast was for poor seeing, but I think it was probably between 3/5 and 4/5--not perfect, but much better than I had hoped it would be. 1500 frames with the SPC900NC in the LX200.

Second Mars of the Year

Better seeing, but I just couldn't stay up late enough to let Mars rise overhead. It was just above 45° altitude when I shot this.

First Mars of the Year

Not the best ever, but you can tell what it is. Seeing between 2/5 & 3/5. I was hoping it would get better as it got later, but it didn't. I still like the SPC900NC, and the new version of EquinoX worked better than I thought it would.