Pictures of Mars taken with a 2x Meade Barlow

Webcam pictures of Mars - 15 August 2003

Pictures of Mars taken with a 2x Meade Barlow

First image of Mars on the last row above reprocessed after monitor calibration - 8 September 2003
I also fixed the ugle black box that was invisible before I recalibrated my computer monitor on 8 September 2003
I overexposed the South Pole of Mars while taking the image, so that cannot be fixed.
Image of Mars on the left - BEFORE - - - Image of Mars on the right - AFTER

From left to right and top to bottom:

Mars at 20h45 UT - 10th of a second, 30 gain, 50 gamma, 70 saturation
Mars at 20h55 UT - 10th of a second, 30 gain, 50 gamma, 70 saturation
Mars at 21h13 UT - 10th of a second, 30 gain, 50 gamma, 70 saturation
Mars at 21h23 UT - 10th of a second, 30 gain, 30 gamma, 70 saturation - Stunning combination !
Mars at 21h45 UT - 25th of a second, 20 gain, 50 gamma, 60 saturation - Exposure too short - will not use 25/sec again
Mars at 21h55 UT - 5th of a second, 30 gain, 50 gamma, 60 saturation - Many slight color tone differences - detailed

My 3x barlow images were getting too faint and noisy so I started using the Meade 2x Barlow again.

It produces much smaller but much more detailed images.

Here are facts for the 4th picture shown on top of this page:

Date: 15 August 2003 Telescope: 10 inch SCT Streaming speed in Astro-Snap: - around 4 fps

Times: 21:23 UT Camera: Logitech Quickcam Pro 4000 Processing: 250 frames stacked out of 1500

Observatory: Hartbeespoort Magnification: 2x Meade Barlow Software: Astro Snap, K3 CCD Tools and Photoshop

Mars Apparent Diameter: 24.5 " Illuminated Fraction: 0.989 Distance from Earth: 0.3820 ua Central meridian: 37.5

More pictures of Mars taken with a 2x Meade Barlow

Apparent Diameter: 24.5 " Illuminated Fraction: 0.989 Distance from Earth: 0.3820 ua Central meridians: 87.24 90.41 94.31

As the apparent diameter of Mars grows, it gets fainter per square second of arc. Just a little bit too faint for nice 3x barlow images. I will be on the lookout (experiment) the next month of when Mars has shrunk small enough to give a nice bright image in the 3x barlow.

Mars 12 August 2003 <<< - - - Mars webcam pictures index - - - >>> Mars 16 August 2003

Date: 15 August 2003	Telescope: 10 inch SCT	Streaming speed in Astro-Snap: - around 4 fps
Times: 21:23 UT	Camera: Logitech Quickcam Pro 4000	Processing: 250 frames stacked out of 1500
Observatory: Hartbeespoort	Magnification: 2x Meade Barlow	Software: Astro Snap, K3 CCD Tools and Photoshop