Mars

 Conditions were optimal this morning for a great view of Mars just five days away from closest approach. 

I was able to see the best detail I’ve ever seen through my Meade ETX125, with the south polar cap and surface markings clearly visible. Great views using a 12.4mm eyepiece and a 2x Barlow lens to get even closer! 

Image is the best of some 3,150 frames grabbed using EZPlanetary software at 06:15 his morning with my QHY5 camera on the Meade ETX 125. I used Registax to stack the 13 separate AVI files making images from each and then used AstroCrop to crop them and re-process them in Registax before a final tweak in Photoshop where false colour was applied.

I projected the image onto an 83” projector screen in the control room to allow fine focusing using the infrared remote control working the stepper motor on the ETX outside the door. This was a great help to get the image as sharp as it could be for imaging.

Chris Bowden