The Planet Mars ... 4th Planet from the Sun

The Planet Mars
The Warrior planet with its angry ruddy red color. I took this image on the night of October 12, 2020 right around midnight. Mars had just past opposition and its closest approach to earth at a distance of 39.78 million miles. You can see one of the polar ice caps along with what could be long striated dust clouds.

I used the software; SharpCap Pro which has a ROI (Region of Interest) function to capture the planet. Instead of taking pictures with a dimension of 5440 x 3648, I am able to set a capture area around the planet, and in this case, 640 x 480 pixels (there are several options for sizing the capture box). This greatly reduces the movie file size by 97% allowing for much more frames for better resolution and faster stacking times.

Techy Stuff:
Telescope: 11" Celestron Edge HD with the Explore Scientific 3x 4 Element Barlow yielding a focus ration of f/30
Mount: CGEM ii
Camera: he camera was the ZWO ASI 1600mm Pro using Red, Green, and Blue filters
Capture software: SharpCap Pro 3.1
Guiding: PHD 2
Filter: R-G-B
Number of Frames in file: 2000
Stacking Program: AutoStakkert! 2.6.8
Used best 200 of the aligned 2000 frames for stacking
Post Processed in RegiStax Photoshop CC
Seeing Conditions: 8 (0-10, where 0 is total cloud cover)
Bortle Light-Pollution zone: 6-7 (can barely see the Milkyway)
Location: Backyard, Savannah GA

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This is a 2 hour animation that I made showing the rotation speed of the planet Mars. Mars rotation speed is very similar to earth's being 24hr 37mn (earth's is 23hr 56mn 4.1sec) ... Click on image for larger view

My Video as to how I photographed Mars. Click on the picture to view the video.

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