Hazy Mars at Opposition
11-Jul-2018
Mars is currently at it's closest to Earth since 2003, and appears as a brilliant red star in the sky. Unfortunately it is also suffering from a severe global dust storm, showing no signs of abating. This means even the polar ice caps are hard to see, let alone any surface features.
Image:
- Infra-red: 1650/5000 frames at 92fps
- Red: 750/5000 frames at 92fps
- Green: 750/5000 frames at 92fps
- Blue: 750/5000 frames at 92fps
Hardware:
- Celestron EdgeHD 1100
- SkyWatcher EQ8 Pro Mount
- ZWO ASI290MM Camera
Location:
- Orange zone in Brisbane, Australia. (Bortle 7)
Software:
- SharpCap: Video recording
- AutoStakkert: Frame extraction & stacking
- PixInsight: Deconvolution, HDRMT, RGB combination, color calibration using north polar ice cap as white reference, pixelmath combine IR + RGB, rotation, unsharp mask, multiscale linear transform for noise reduction, global saturation.