How Did You Capture the Mars Occultation? Share Your Photos Here!

  • Context: Stargazing 
  • Thread starter Thread starter russ_watters
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Mars
Click For Summary

Discussion Overview

The thread discusses participants' experiences capturing the Mars occultation, sharing their photos and techniques. The focus is on the methods used for astrophotography, including equipment and processing techniques, as well as the challenges faced during the event.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory, Technical explanation, Debate/contested, Experimental/applied

Main Points Raised

  • One participant describes their setup using a C11 telescope with a 0.33 focal reducer and a ZWO ASI1600 monochrome camera, noting the limitations of their color camera for capturing the entire moon.
  • Another participant shares their surprise at the quality of their photo, suggesting an unexpected success in their imaging efforts.
  • Multiple participants comment on the quality of the photos, with one noting that the image appears to be a composite.
  • A participant explains the process of stacking thousands of frames to reduce atmospheric distortion, while also addressing the challenges of relative motion between the Moon and Mars during the stacking process.
  • The same participant clarifies that the final image is a combination of separately processed images of Mars and the Moon to mitigate smearing effects.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants generally agree on the techniques used for capturing and processing images of the occultation, but there is no consensus on the specific outcomes of each participant's efforts, as experiences and results vary.

Contextual Notes

Some limitations include the dependence on atmospheric conditions for image quality and the technical challenges of processing images taken at different times due to the movement of celestial bodies.

Who May Find This Useful

Astronomy enthusiasts, astrophotographers, and those interested in celestial events may find this discussion relevant for techniques and experiences related to capturing occultations.

russ_watters
Mentor
Insights Author
Messages
23,821
Reaction score
11,260
TL;DR
Observation of the Jan 13, 2025 Mars Occultation
Post your pics of the Mars occultation here!

Currently it's 8:20 EST, about an hour from the occultation. Below is a still of what I'm working on (the gray dot near the right side is Mars):

Still 2025-01-13 201746.jpg


I'm using my C11, a 0.33 focal reducer and currently using a ZWO ASI1600 monochrome camera. It's the only setup with which I can shoot the entire moon with the C11. I'm going to shoot the "in" with this setup and the "out" at higher magnification and a color camera. The color camera has a much smaller sensor and pixels so it can't image the entire moon even with the focal reducer.

Zommed-in on Mars:

2025-01-14-0058_9-U-R-Mars_1.png


This is a 3,000 frame stack. Seeing isn't very good, so there isn't much detail to be had.
 
Last edited:
Reply
  • Like
Likes   Reactions: Drakkith
Astronomy news on Phys.org
Well this ended up better than expected!

Moon-Mars-2024-01-13.jpg
 
Reply
  • Like
Likes   Reactions: Nugatory, glappkaeft, berkeman and 4 others
Incredible photo, looks like a composite.
 
Ken G said:
Incredible photo, looks like a composite.
It sort of is. It's not a single frame; to take high-res photos through the atmosphere you take thousands of photos and stack them, which cancels-out the atmospheric distortion. But because the Moon and Mars are moving relative to each other, stacking photos will smear one or the other. So they have to be processed separately and then re-combined, from one or a set of massive video file(s). But it is the same camera, same settings, about the same time, and the separately processed Mars is pasted over a smeared version of itself.
 
Reply
  • Like
Likes   Reactions: Ken G and Ibix

Similar threads

Graduate What Challenges Did I Face in Capturing Images of the Andromeda Galaxy and Mars?
  • · Replies 0 ·
Replies
0
Views
2K
High School Infrared Detectors & The 2nd Law of Thermodynamics
  • · Replies 152 ·
6
Replies
152
Views
11K