Mars Images with Webcam

20/8/2003

Just to show how bad it can get when you are starting. This image was my first attempt at Mars.

8" LX200 F10, Toucam-Pro webcam. 150 frames @ 5fps, 1/250th. Captured, aligned and stacked in K3CCD. Contrast enhancement PSP. Main problems:

• Poor focussing - must take more time to get the focussing as good as possible

• Insufficient magnification - get the F factor and pixel size optimised.

• Not enough frames - need lots to select from and stack.

26/8/2003

 A few days later and the technique had improved. LX200, F20 with x2 Barlow, Toucam-Pro webcam at prime focus.

300 frames @ 5fps, 1/50th. 10 best frames manually selected and stacked in K3CCD. Max Entropy applied to each colour using MaxIM DL. Contrast adjust in PSP.

31/8/03

The other side taken on 31/3/2004, as for the previous image, but best 50 frames selected.