Mars, finally!

pursuer · Oct 21, 2005

I have been trying to get a photo of mars for the last few weeks but the weather hasn't cooperated with me until tonight. The northern (lower) hemisphere can be seen caped with a layer of cloud and some signs of the giant dust storm currently sweeping across the planet can be seen in the southern hemisphere. There also seems to be just a hint of the southern polar ice cap visible at the top, it is going into summer there so the ice cap is currently very small.

The pleiades star cluster

Thanks for looking.

ClarkKent · Oct 21, 2005

Nice work. You shooting through a telescope?

LaFoto · Oct 22, 2005

Wow, pursuer! All that can be seen from Earth? That is soooo cool!
All I see is a bright star! Reddish it is, yes, but ... love this detail here! Great!

.
Thanks for your determination, it has finally brought about a very nice result! Yay! :thumbsup:

seven · Oct 22, 2005

Very cool pictures, without a telescope I can't picture how big the lens would be.

Meysha · Oct 22, 2005

pursuer! Amazing isn't it! all those tiny little planets and stars out there!

And I've got you to thank for making me feel so tiny and insignificant.

hehehe thanks!

Your photos are always amazing and interesting! :hug::

doenoe · Oct 22, 2005

wow, thats just amazing. Cant believe that you can shoot that from earth. The star cluster is awesome too.

PlasticSpanner · Oct 22, 2005

Fantastic detail in the Mars shot! I can make out the blue haze quite clearly and the ice cap is just visible still!:thumbup: Did you take that with film, digital or CCD?

pursuer · Oct 22, 2005

Thanks alot everyone

I should have posted the details last night but I was pretty tired.

The first shot was taken through a telescope. The scope has a 10" primary mirror , if I attach my camera directly to the the scope (prime focus) it is the equivalent of a f/4.7 1200mm lens. However that still isn't enough magnification for something as small as Mars so instead I put my camera on a tripod seperate from the telescope and lined it up with an 8mm eyepiece attached to the scope. This combination yeilds a magnification of 147X

The second shot is a 20sec exposure at f2.8 ISO800, through my f/1.8 50mm, with the camera piggy backed ontop of the scope.

pursuer · Oct 22, 2005

PlasticSpanner, that was taken with my 300D

hobbes28 · Oct 22, 2005

Okay, that's just amazing. You may have me going to the telescope store after all...

PlasticSpanner · Oct 22, 2005

pursuer said:
Thanks alot everyone

I should have posted the details last night but I was pretty tired.

The first shot was taken through a telescope. The scope has a 10" primary mirror , if I attach my camera directly to the the scope (prime focus) it is the equivalent of a f/4.7 1200mm lens. However that still isn't enough magnification for something as small as Mars so instead I put my camera on a tripod seperate from the telescope and lined it up with an 8mm eyepiece attached to the scope. This combination yeilds a magnification of 147X

The second shot is a 20sec exposure at f2.8 ISO800, through my f/1.8 50mm, with the camera piggy backed ontop of the scope.

You could have just said it was an f/4.7 1200mm lens! :lol:

:shock:

Is it possible to use an eyepeice inside the T-Mount adapter for your camera?

Is there much digital noise at ISO 800?

pursuer · Oct 22, 2005

PlasticSpanner said:
You could have just said it was an f/4.7 1200mm lens! :shock:

Is it possible to use an eyepeice inside the T-Mount adapter for your camera?

Is there much digital noise at ISO 800?

True enough, lol.

No, the way the T-Ring I use for prime focus is setup there is no way to use an eyepiece with it.
Thats why I was using the awkward setup of having a seperate tripod. There are products available to mount cameras to the end of the EP. This technique is normally refered to as eyepiece projection or afocal photography.

There is noise at ISO 800 but with with dedicated astrophoto software like pixinsight or even noise reduction software like neat image it isn't significant.
The noise is even less of a problem if you are going to subtract dark frames and and stack multiple exposures.

aprilraven · Oct 22, 2005

now i get the meaning behind the name....pursuer....you kept after this til you got it....

the first shot is just one of the coolest shots i have ever seen...i have never been able to see mars that well... your shot is better than the ones in magazines!! great job!

i am with meysha...the second really can make you feel small and insignificant... these are great, and i am gonna have to show them off to a few of my friends...
** hey look what a buddy of mine took... your gonna dig them...**