Mars and the Moon – January 27, 2010
Looked like the sky might actually clear some to get a look at Mars as it is the closest to Earth that it will be until again in 2014 – only 99 million kilometers away! It was fairly clear, with just a few passing clouds, and very cool. The seeing was not so good, there was a lot of moisture in the air.
Visually Mars was very easy to observer and I was able to get some good detail even at medium to high magnification. Large, red-orange, and bright. I could even see the white polar region. The air was just not still enough for imaging. I was able to get good focus and the scope was staying on target but the images just came out a bit blurred. So below is the image I ended up with, it is 120 seconds at 5 frames/second stacked through the AT66ED 400mm scope with a 2x Barlow with the Celestron NexImage camera. I tried imaging through the Celestron 8″ SCT but the seeing was not very good to image at that high magnification.
Mars - January 27, 2010
After spending some time trying to get a decent image of Mars I turned the scope to the Moon and took a few stills. I think several of them turned out right well and you can see some good detail. I will identify the major features in the photos when I have more time. There are also a couple other images on my flickr page.
Moon - January 27, 2010
Moon - January 27, 2010
Moon - January 27, 2010
The moisture took over both scopes about 2 hours into observing. I have got to get a dew heater!
