Webcam images of Mars

Webcam pictures of Mars - 23 September 2003

Webcam images of Mars taken 18:40 on 23 September 2003

webcam images of Mars

150 stacked frames out of 800 - effort one 150 stacked frames out of 800 - effort two

186 stacked frames out of 800 250 stacked frames out of 800

The same 800 raw frames were used to create all 4 these final images of Mars. Slightly different image processing were done in each case.

Some finer detail easily visible in the hand-picked 150 best frames images can barely be made out in the image of Mars using the 250 frames.

Date: 23 September 2003 Telescope: 10 inch SCT Streaming speed in Astro-Snap: - around 4 fps

Times: 18:40 UT Camera: Logitech Quickcam Pro 4000 Processing: 170 frames stacked out of 800

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

Mars Apparent Diameter: 22.1 " Illuminated Fraction: 0.965 Central meridian: 11.2

Image of Mars on the left: 170 frames stacked. Only the best 170 of 250 frames were used to create this picture.

Image of Mars on the right: 250 frames stacked.

Once again, hand picking only the best 170 frames out of 250 good frames, gives a sharper image (on the left).

How I did this:

Capture 800 raw frames using Astro Snap
Process these 800 frames using K3 CCD Tools - let it pick the best 250 frames
Hand pick the best frames from the 250 frames suggested by K3 CCD Tools

170 frames is not a magic number - that is just the number of frames that were left after I unselected the spoiled (blurred) images from the 250 frames that I started with.

This is one of my not-so-good images. It is posted here to show that if you hand pick the best frames even of your not-so-good images the end result is still better compared to just accepting the best frames that were automatically picked - by ANY software program.

Exposure times were 1/10 of a second for all the images of Mars on this webpage.

Date: 23 September 2003 Telescope: 10 inch SCT Streaming speed in Astro-Snap: - around 4 fps

Times: 21:45 UT Camera: Logitech Quickcam Pro 4000 Processing: 170 frames stacked out of 800

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

Mars Apparent Diameter: 22.1 " Illuminated Fraction: 0.965 Central meridian: 56.3

From left to right:

Stacked result directly from K3 CCD Tools
Result after processing the K3 CCD Tools image using Photoshop
Result after processing the K3 CCD Tools image using Photoshop - used the red channel for the luminance channel

Date: 24 September 2003 Telescope: 10 inch SCT Streaming speed in Astro-Snap: - around 4 fps

Times: 22:05 UT Camera: Logitech Quickcam Pro 4000 Processing: 250 frames stacked out of 800

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

Mars Apparent Diameter: 22.1 " Illuminated Fraction: 0.965 Central meridian: 61

Mars 12 September 2003 <<< - - - Mars webcam pictures index - - - >>> Mars 24 September 2003


150 stacked frames out of 800 - effort one	150 stacked frames out of 800 - effort two

Date: 23 September 2003	Telescope: 10 inch SCT	Streaming speed in Astro-Snap: - around 4 fps
Times: 18:40 UT	Camera: Logitech Quickcam Pro 4000	Processing: 170 frames stacked out of 800
Observatory: Hartbeespoort	Magnification: 2x Meade Barlow	Software: Astro Snap, K3 CCD Tools and Photoshop

Date: 24 September 2003	Telescope: 10 inch SCT	Streaming speed in Astro-Snap: - around 4 fps
Times: 22:05 UT	Camera: Logitech Quickcam Pro 4000	Processing: 250 frames stacked out of 800
Observatory: Hartbeespoort	Magnification: 2x Meade Barlow	Software: Astro Snap, K3 CCD Tools and Photoshop