Racing Towards Mars!

Yet another weekend promising clouds and rain.

Friday morning from just after midnight 'till dawn looked good, however.

So, I thwarted the forecast by taking yet another unplanned vacation day from work. I had the equipment out and set up by 0130 and stayed out long enough to greet the sunrise.

Afterward, I had a good long post-astronomy nap.

The moon was brightly shining, meaning that deep space objects (DSO) were washed out by the skyglow.

So, what did I do while waiting for Mars to rise, this time?

Played with the newly constructed Mars Mobile Observatory, of course!  

Mars Mobile Observatory, Aka CubCadet Lawn Tractor with the Grab-n-Go Scope

Well, okay.  As much fun as it might have been to zoom around the yard in the wee hours of the morning with the Grab-n-Go scope strapped to the lawn tractor, I left the neighborhood to its sleepy slumber and kept the tractor nestled quietly in its corner of the garage.

While waiting for Mars, I actually played with the equipment and prepared for the next blog post, tentatively titled, "Focus on Mars."  

Newest image of Mars ahead!

Waiting for Mars

Monsoon season again this week.

It's not likely I'll be able to bring the scope out for an astronomy session this weekend.

This will never work

Well, I guess I could take the optical tube assembly (OTA) outside, point it up, squirt some dishwashing soap on the mirror, and take advantage of the naturally distilled water pouring from the sky.  As a technique for cleaning the primary mirror, however, that seems fraught with peril . . . 

I think I'll just leave the mirror alone for now and continue with my planned posting of a little about what I do while waiting for Mars to rise.

Deep space object (DSO) images ahead!

Mars and Jupiter and Saturn, Oh My!

With the excitement of Mars' impending opposition, I shouldn't neglect the other bright naked eye planets that are visible in the morning sky, Jupiter and Saturn.

Their brightness in the sky makes it obvious even to the casual observer that there is probably something special about them.

Mars and Jupiter and Saturn, oh my!

Mars? Well, www.marsneeds.com, says it all.😉

Jupiter?  The Galilean moons always put on a show, and are binocular visible if you have steady hands and the moons are sufficiently spaced from Jove's face!  The bands of color and the Great Red Spot need a telescope for viewing.

Saturn?  Of course, it's the rings!  You can't actually see the rings without at least a small telescope, but rings are the first thing that come to mind when you think of Saturn.

While waiting for Mars to rise, I do point the telescope at other objects in the sky and take a peek!

Mars Vacation

From X-Minus One:

Countdown to blastoff.

X minus 5, 4, 3, 2,  . . .

ZWO ASI224MC + Shorty Barlow and NexImage 5

Well, they kinda look like space capsules from days of yore, don't they?

Sadly, my application for astronaut training hasn't been approved yet -- a vacation trip to Mars is probably something I'll never have.

I did, however, take a vacation day from work to do an astronomy session Friday morning.  I went out a little after midnight and stayed out until dawn.

The two pieces of equipment in the photo above are items with which I've had great success using lucky imaging techniques to capture images of planets and the moon.

Mars and Clouds

Clouds.  

The sky is full of clouds.  And it will be that way all weekend.

This forecast from the Clear Sky Chart website says it all.

The forecast from Astrospheric, while more precise and easier to use, is just as bleak. (Apps for Android and iOS available!)

And the local weather forecasters have been threatening us with impending buckets of pouring rain. 

So, what does an amature astronomer do in a case like this?

Mars, Up Close and Personal!

So what does Mars approaching opposition mean to me as an amature astronomer?

Mars, January 30th 2016

Take a look at these two images of Mars.  

The first of which was made by me in January of 2016, months before the last close approach of the Red Planet. It was the best I could do.  Mars was just a featureless ruddy disk in the sky.

The second image was captured just a few days after opposition in May 2016.  

Pesky clouds! 

Mars, May 27th 2016

I remember cursing the clouds because I could not use the 'scope on the night of opposition.

There is a huge change in the appearance of Mars between these two images!

I was using the same telescope, the same barlow, the same imager, the same capture software, the same laptop, the same driveway location...

The difference between the two images was the position of Mars in its orbit with respect to Earth's.

Amazing, huh!?

NakedEyePlanets.com has a really good graphic that shows the apparent relative size of Mars at opposition from 2012 to 2018.  Look at how large Mars will be in 2018!

I'm excited.

Mars Videos!

Yes!

Videos of Mars.

The videos were captured by me from my backyard. These are raw unprocessed videos converted into AVI format and uploaded to my Youtube channel.   The videos have been truncated from their original full length.

The first video was captured on May 27th 2016, just a few days past Mars' last opposition. 

Post processing it with AutoStackkert! and some tweaking with RegiStax 6 resulted in this beautiful image!

Mars, May 27th 2016

The second video was captured this morning, April 28th, 2018 at 0330.  The complete video capture has 80,000 frames.

I selected the sharpest 10% of the frames for stacking purposes and the resultant image is below.

Mars, April 28th 2018

This shows how powerful it is to be able to collect thousands of frames, to be able to select the best of them, and to able to stack and apply sharpening techniques.

See Lucky Imaging.

We are still a few months away from Mars' 2018 opposition.

Notice the huge difference in the visibility of features on Mars between the two images!  Just wait until Mars reaches opposition in July!

I'll be making video and images as it gets closer and closer.


I'm excited.