Observation by Chris Hooker: Mercury IR 9th October 2016

Uploaded by

Chris Hooker

Observer

Chris Hooker

Observed

2016 Oct 09 - 11:30

Uploaded

2017 Jan 08 - 12:47

Objects

Mercury

Equipment

250mm Newtonian
Imaging Source DMK212AU04.AS webcam
Baader IR-pass filter

Location

Didcot, Oxfordshire

Target name

Mercury

Title

Mercury IR 9th October 2016

About this image

Mercury was imaged in daytime (from around 8 to 10 am) with an IR-pass filter. Due to the small size of the planet and poor daytime seeing, the proportion of good frames is very small, a few percent at best. To acquire enough data for a good image, multiple videos of 5000 frames were captured. The total number of frames captured in this observation was more than 45,000. Initial frame selection using Registax reduced the total number to around 1500 per video and eliminated most of the worst-quality frames. The final selection was done by visual examination in VirtualDub, retaining only the best frames prior to registration and stacking. Two independent sets of frames were each stacked and sharpened to yield the “verification images”. Common features in these images can be considered as genuine markings on the surface of Mercury. A final, more critical selection of frames was made to yield the final image. Comparing the result with a suitably blurred Messenger image shows that the features are indeed real.

Files associated with this observation

Mercury 9 October 2016.PNG (192.6 kB)

Like this image

Jeremy Shears, Dr Andrew Smith, Chris Dole, David Dunn, Mike Olason, Tom Moran, Nick Hewitt, Steve Knight, Alun Halsey

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