Sky this Week

Here is image of Mars last night 11:33 pm. The chevron shape of Syrtis Major and dark band of Utopia around the north polar cap were visible in 8mm eyepiece as well.

Image acquired with Celestron Nexstar11, Televue 2.5X Powermate, and DMK21AU04.AS video camera and LRGB filters. Aligned and stacked with Registax5. Channels combined with Photoshop and enlarged 50%. Great conditions here in Louisville, clear, no clouds, low humidity, great transparency, no wind, temperature 30F, and turbulence about 7/10 more or less.

Image of Mars at 12:43 am this morning. Nice steady air last night for this area. The polar cap and faint darkish smudges toward darkside limb were visible through the eyepiece. Diameter is now 12.3 arc sec. The Mars central meridian was 84 degrees longitude at time of this image so Solis Lacus, “the eye of Mars” is probably the darker round area to the lower right of center and Niliacus Lacus/Mare Acidalium to the upper right of center. Image is oriented north up and east to the left more or less.

Image taken with Celestron Nexstar11 scope, Televue 2.5X Powermate, and DMK 21AU04.AS video camera at 1/60 sec exposure at 60 fps, gain adjusted to maintain max at about 3/4 of log scale histogram for each LRGB filter, 50 sec video each. Stacked and aligned with Registax5, channels combined with Photshop CS4. Sky clear, temp 16 deg. F, no wind, transparency very good, turbulence varied from about 6 to 8/10, location Lousiville, Co.