Mars 2010

I started late for Mars this season. 

These images were taken with a C11  on an AP900GTO mount. My imager is a  DMK21BF04 monochrome camera.  A Homeyer motorized filter wheel was used to produce an RGB image.  I used an Astrophysics Barcon working at 3X with an Astrophysics Maxbright Diagonal as my UV-IR blocking filter.    To capture I used  The Imaging Source IC Capture 2.0.  For processing, I used Registax V5 by Cor Berrevoets.

Links to Mars Images and Info: Past Images of Mars
ALPO Archives 2003
Japan ALPO Mars Latest 2005
  2007

March 13, 2010

Seeing was variable this evening.   Here is the region of Mare Cimmerium and the Hyblaeus Extension.  Olympus Mons is marked  by a small white cloud setting on the left.  Mars is getting smaller and smaller now.

 

March 10, 2010

Seeing wasn't great this evening.  I only had a short session because clouds rolled in.

Mare Cimmerium can be seen in this image.  There are hints of clouds in the direction of Tharsis.

March 7, 2010

Seeing was better this evening. 

Syrtis Major and Minor can be seen in this image.  Also part of Mare Cimmerium can be seen.  Also there seems to be some clouds at Chaos.

March 5, 2010

Seeing was terrible this evening.   The area is around Syrtis Major and Syrtis Minor.  Not a lot of cloud activity here.

 

March 3, 2010

Seeing was unstable this evening. 

Syrtis Major is prominent in this image.  Note the white cloud at Hellas.  Sinus Sabaeus is on the left.  The area around Utopia is well resolved.

 

February 27, 2010

Seeing was again good this evening. 

Sinus Sabaues and Syrtis Major are prominent in these images.  Note the clouds at Mare Acidalium.  The left side of the NPC is still a little dark.   

 

February 26, 2010

Seeing was good this evening.

Sinus Sabaeus is prominent in this image. Note that the left part of the NPC is dark!!  Is there a dust storm there?  Syrtis Major can be seen rising on the ring.  Note the cloud at Zen Lacus.

There seems to be some possible dust haze at Mare Acidalium.

 

February 23, 2010

Seeing not great this evening.  The Chryse region and Sinus Meridiani can be seen in this image.

 

February 21, 2010

Seeing was excellent this evening. 

Note Sinus Meridiani on the right.  Chryse and Mare Erythraeum is at the CM.  Mare Acidalium is also well resolved at the north.   Note the light clouds at Tharsis.

Check  out the video of this.

 

February 12, 2010

Seeing was poor this evening.  Note the clouds above the Tharsis volcanoes including Olympus Mons.   Solis Lacus can be seen on the lower right.

 

February 6, 2010

I had a 3 hour run this evening!!  Seeing was not good at the start of my imaging session because Mars  was still very low.   But things improved as Mars got higher.

My images start with the Tharsis Volcanic region with the distinctive clouds above the volcanoes especially Olympus Mons on the left.  The image ends around the Mare Cimmerium region.

Note the bright area at the NPR.

The animation below was done using Microsoft Movie Maker.  It was interesting to make this as the results are far better than those made using gif animation!

You can get the video at:

http://astro.christone.net/mars/mars20100206.avi

or

http://astro.christone.net/mars/mars20100206.wmv

 

February  5, 2010

Seeing was terrible this evening.  I only got this image before clouds rolled in.

The clouds above Olympus Mons can be seen in this image.  There are other cloud spots in the Tharsis region.

 

February  3, 2010

The evening started clear but turned cloudy around 10pm.  Seeing was variable.  I finally found out what is causing the dark streaks on my Mars image.  It seems that my camera has these artifacts when running at 60fps.  I will slow down my frame rate during my next imaging run.

Mare Cimmerium  and Sirenum can be seen in the southern hemisphere.  Setting on the right is the white clouds above Olympus Mons.   There are some clouds at Ausornia and Electris at the south.   There are also some clouds at Syrtis Major.

The dark bar on the NPC is probably artifact from my camera. 

January 31, 2010

Seeing was variable this evening. 

The NPR is very well resolved.  The bright polar cap is contrasted with the polar hood above it! Note the equatorial cloud.  Mare Cimmerium can be seen close to the CM.  Note the two vertical streaks resolved in Mare Cimmerium.

Syrtis Major is rising on the left.   

Note the 1 hour animation.

 

January 29, 2010

The sky was partially cloudy today.  I had to fight the clouds this evening.  Seeing was very variable.

Syrtis Major can be seen on the right.  Mare Cimmerum is setting.   Note the faint clouds at the chaos region.  

 

 

January 28, 2010

Seeing wasn't the great this evening because I wasn't able to cool my OTA properly.  The final image however came out okay

Syrtis Major  is prominent in this image.   Syrtis Major is well resolved but there are no blue clouds today.  These seems to be some clouds around the Hellas region.

Note the dark arc in the North Polar Cap (NPR).  There are faint clouds around the Ismenius Lacus Region.  Where there's a prominent cloud at Chaos.

© Christopher Go 2010

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