The Dutch Observatory

The forecast was average, but the clouds started to move in already as we were imaging the sun in the afternoon at CE.  When I got out at midnight, the blue moon had a hugh halo caused by a thin (?) cloud cover.  I could faintly see the stars of the constellation Leo.  Since this was the last opportunity to image Mars in 2009 for me, I gave it a shot anyway despite the bad conditions.  I was able to make two series with each filter, but when I finished I could not even see Regulus anymore.  Here the best of the two, and my last image of 2009.  BTW this image is also stacked with Emil’s software.

The humidity got to levels now where I don’t have to worry about my corrector plate so I can concentrate on imaging for a change.  The transparency and the seeing were far from what I would be hoping for, but I wanted to make use of the fact that I did not have to watch the corrector plate.  I made 7 series of RGBI images over the span of 1 hour an made also an animation.  I used some new software for these. Our friend Emil Kraaikamp from the Netherlands did let me use his (alpha version) tools.  I must say I like what I saw.  Obviously I want to check this out when my AVIs are a little better quality, but I did process the images using his software as well as Registax.  Below the two images, the left one is processed using Emil’s software, the right one using Registax.

 Here the first image of the series together with the filtered images.  Next to it a 1 hour animation of rotation of Mars. Click the thumbnail to start the rotation.

Finally a night where I did not have to worry about a dewed, or frozen over corrector plate.  Temp. was 32 degrees but the humidity dropped to 73%   However, I had to image Mars between cloud banks.  It seemed the fringes of one bank kept streching over my house, but there was enough time to get a few avis in, althoug some were cut short.  Here the best image of the night.

The forecast deteriorated as the day went on and when I was ready to go out, the sky was clovered with puffy/rolling clouds.  15 Minutes later the transparency had improved to a level where I would give it a try.  Only one set, with a compromised blue channel, until the clouds came again.  Here the only set I took this morning.  Clouds can be seen around and south of Alba Patera and between the CM and the evening limb.  Also the white spots in the NPC are distinct. 

Today the seeing was supposed to be a lot better but not here in Social Circle.  Anyway, it was good enough to get a series of images. Here one of the 5 images between 1:00 and 1:40am EST.   The white spots in the NPC are very distinct in the red and green image. 

Here an image of the 5 sets I took between 1:00 and 1:40am EST.  Click on the image next to it to see a 1/2 hour rotation of the planet.

Finally, after almost two weeks of clouds, rain, clouds and more rain, we got a short break.  Thursday morning we had a brief opportunity to see Mars again through a thin layer of high clouds just enough to get one reasonable run.  The others were completely mis-ballanced for the different channels. It appears that some orographic cloulds can be seen forming around Taterus Montes (green and blue images).

The first night of the winter where we had frost (25°F) at the Dutch Observatory. The humidity was high, 85%, and I had to interrupt twice to keep the frost off the corrector plate.  I am pretty happy with the image at average seeing and transparency.  Clouds can be seen over Cydonia extending to Niliacus Lacus and Mare Acidalium.

Got up at 3:00am.  The sky showed broken cloud coverage, so I decided to give it a try anyway since I was wide awake.  Unfortunately clouds kept moven through and the humidity with the low temperature kept attacking the corrector plate.  So I am glad my image shows some albedo features at all   The forecast is bad again.  I wonder when we get a break to get some nice results.