Sky this Week

Mars at 12:06 am this morning. Best of the evening. Images taken from about 10-11 pm were dismal in comparison, seeing apparently deteriorated for a while and then improved.

Celestron Nexstar11 telescope, 2.5X Powermate, DMK21AU04.AS camera, 60fps luminance channel, 30 fps RGB channels, aligned and stacked with Registax5. Transparency very good, no wind, 18 deg. F. Seeing was about 6 based on the airy disk when I rechecked collimation for this set.

Here is Mars from shortly after 9 pm this evening. Good conditions — most clear, turbulence somewhere between 6 and 7, very good transparency, 26 deg.F., 2-3 mph wind

Usual set up, Celestron Nexstar11, Televue 2.5X Powermate, DMK21AU04.AS camera, LRGB filters, 30fps, 1/30 sec.
Aligned and stacked with Registax5, Channels combined with Photoshop CS4.

Another image of Mars from last evening just before 11 pm. Image oriented north up, east to the left more or less. Mare Acidalium is the dark albedo feature visible just below and slightly left of north polar cap. Sinus Merdiani is the roundish dark area just below center and slightly right or west. Mare Sabaeus is the dark line extending from Sabaeus to the southwest. Arabia is the large lighter region west of center.

Mostly cloudy here last night but got some occasional gaps in them so I could capture mars images. Turbulence was about 5/10 or maybe slightly better. However thin haze always present with varying transparency from fair to poor. I was able to compensate somewhat by changing gain on camera while recording. However I had to drop Registax quality to 85% to get even a couple hundred frames. Temp 28F, 3-5 mph wind, location Louisville. Usual setup, Celstron Nexstar11, 2.5X Powermate, DMK21AU04.AS video camera, and LRGB filters.

Comet 29P Schwassmann-Wachmann on Feb. 10 at 10:50 MST.

Equipment used Celestron Nexstar11, Meade F3.3 focal reducer, StellacamII video camera. Alligned, dark subtracted, and aligned with Registax5. Photoshop used to crop, brighten, and create animation. Sky was partly cloudy, transparency was good, not great. Turbulence between 5 and 6/10, no wind, location Louisville.