November 15, 2024

Mars – 11/28/2020, 19h14m EST

Mars – 11/28/2020, 19h14m EST

Telescope: Celestron C9.25 @ f/20, Orion Atlas EQ-G

Camera: ZWO ASI294MC, Gain 300

Filter: Highpoint Scientific IR Filter

Exposure: 10min (73,200×0.008sec), saved as SER

Seeing: fair, 3/5

White Balance: Photoshop & Nebulosity Automatic

Software: Sharpcap Pro, Autostakkert, Nebulosity, Registax, Photoshop This is part of a test sequence taken during an initial evaluation of a new to me Celestron C9.25. There’s a bit of image shift and mirror flop that I need to get sorted (not unusual for a used scope) so I checked the focus and collimation on a nearby star. I used a 1.5x drizzle while stacking and combined the stacked images using 5%, 10%, 25%, and 50% of the source images to smooth out some of the pixilation. A gentle median filter in Photoshop cleaned it up nicely. The “Y” shaped near the eastern limb is the Mariner Valley. To the upper left near the sunrise terminator you can glimpse Olympus Mons as a slightly dark patch and to the lower right of Olympus lying along a diagonal line is the Tharsis Plateau with Arsia, Pavonis, and Ascraeus Mons.