Observation by Mike Scarisbrick: Mars and Neptune

Uploaded by

Mike Scarisbrick

Observer

Mike Scarisbrick

Observed

2018 Dec 07 - 18:30

Uploaded

2018 Dec 27 - 14:55

Objects

Mars
Neptune
Conjunction

Equipment

1000 mm f.l. f/5 Newtonian
Atik GP camera
x2.7 Barlow (for Mars)

Location

Cambridgeshire

Target name

Mars, Neptune

Title

Mars and Neptune

About this image

Mars and Neptune about 7 arc minutes apart. In the main picture Mars is grossly overdone, and looks a lot bigger than Neptune, in fact the apparent disk size of Mars is only about 4 times bigger than Neptune.

It was in reality far too windy (with poor seeing even when the gusts weren't rattling the telescope) to attempt to image Mars, so the inset top right is a poor image of Mars at 2.7 times the original magnification - and then with the image size doubled. Both images produced from video by Registax 6 (Mars just 70 frames out of 1600), with the main image processed in Astro Art 6 with just histogram changes to brighten Neptune up a bit.

Later, after about 15 minutes standing outside with shaking arms and three pairs of binoculars, I decided it was far too windy to be looking for Comet 46P/Wirtanen,

Files associated with this observation

MarsAndNeptune2018_12_07.jpg (43.7 kB)

Like this image

Jimmy Fraser, David Swan, Graham Winstanley, Andy Wilson, Geof Lewis, Martin Lewis, Jeremy Shears

Comments

David Swan, 2018 Dec 27 - 21:37 UTC

This is very nice, Mike. You captured the colour and brightness contrasts well.

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