These pictures of Mars were taken with the following exposure settings - all pictures were generated by processing AVIs in Registax. All 1 minute AVIs were made up of exposures that were 1/25 second per frame. Pictures all taken on 18 June 2003 between 4:00 and 5:00 in the morning.

• A - All the default exposure settings were used
• B - 2 adjustment bars brighter
• C - 4 adjustment bars brighter
• D - 2 adjustment bars less gamma
• E - 6 adjustment bars more gamma
• F - 10 adjustment bars less gamma
• G - default saturation
• H -zero saturation
• I - maximum saturation
• J - all adjustment bars dragged around until Mars looked at its best
• K - All the default exposure settings were used
• L - 1/50 second exposure time per frame (all other pictures above were taken at 1/25 sec)
• M -1/100 second exposure time per frame (all other pictures above were taken at 1/25 sec)
• N -1/100 second exposure time per frame - and made much brighter as well.
• O -1/50 second exposure time per frame - and made much brighter as well.

My interpretation of these results are as follows:

Please note: these are the results for my telescope, camera, seeing conditions combination only. Your results may differ. The point here is that it is worthwhile to do some experiments of your own.

1/10 second is too long an exposure. Mars is too bright. 1/25 second exposures for Mars works much better.

Still to complete...

Here is an annotated, enlarged map showing the most prominent features on Mars at this low magnification.