From: "Milton Aupperle" <milton@outcastsoft.com>

Date: December 21, 2007 9:21:33 AM MST

To: Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com

Subject: Re: Mars Dec. 2nd & 7th


Hi Phil;


Nice Shots of Mars. So far the only recognizable features I got was in

October. I was out on the 16th (-18°C here) and got basically nothing

again, even though I was shooting at 25 millisecond exposures / 30 fps

and at 5,000 mm focal length.


One thing to keep in mind when stacking that using more frames is not

necessarily the best thing. The main reason to stack many frames it to

reduce noise. If you use high gains then the noise is going to show up

in the final image unless you stack lots of frames. Some of my large

lunar composites were done with 30 to 50 stacked frames out of 2000+ shot.


Also when selecting an area for alignment especially for larger round

objects, try and pick a diagonal area (i.e North East, North West,

South East or South West)corner. You want to try and get an area that

has some vertical and horizontal oriented edges on it, so it can lock

onto them.


Hope That Helps..


Milton Aupperle


--- In Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com, Phil Houston <pkh111@...> wrote:


Hi All,


II too have been trying to capture a good Mars image this year but  

the skies have not been the best so far here either.  The few clear  

nights have been turbulent and Mars looks like an egg rolling around  

in my scope.  I have tried stacking many videos but none showed any  

promise until I manually selected an alignment area slightly larger  

than the planet and stacked fewer than the usual percentage of  

frames.  I have not tried multiple alignments on Mars yet and don't  

know if selecting a large area is the best way to go but it seemed to  

help.  It sure slows things down though.  The images are over  

processed but I really wanted to bring out some details.  I wish now  

that I had not trashed the videos of the more interesting sides of Mars.


Below are temporary links to images taken on the 2nd and 7th.  Both  

were taken through a 6" Mak, Astronomiks RGB filters, and a DMK  

31AF03 camera. I'm not sure why the color between the two images are  

so different.  It was not intentional.  Hopefully, we will have a  

least one night of good seeing this month.


http://www.knology.net/~pkh111/q6mars120207.jpg


http://www.knology.net/~pkh111/q6mars120707.jpg


Good seeing and Happy Holidays,


Phil