Mars and the Moon

Adam1987

Adam1987

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Any one going to be capturing this tonight, Mars is going to be at its brightest it has been for a while.
 
Apparently according to the news it will be at its brightest at about 9 tonight
 
thanks ,if its not to cold i may have a go,they just said winters returning,didnt see it leave.
 
It's looking like we might have clear skies up here tonight so I fancy having a go at this.

I read somewhere that the best results will be with a 100mm lens (to keep both Mars and the Moon in the same frame), but does anyone have any advice on exposure settings?
 
I'm going to be trying to capture Mars... I'm going to be using my Lunar/Planetary setup. A 1300mm telescope and either x4 or x5 tc with an 8.5x crop factor camera. A lot will depend on the conditions. I did the moon a couple of nights ago...

I may see about shooting both the moon and mars in a single frame, but as the moon is just about full it's going to be a very difficult dynamic range.
 
It'll look like a star at anything less than probably about 2000mm
 
So is the best bet to expose for the Moon and just see if Mars makes an appearance? Must admit I didn't appreciate how different in size they will appear.
 
jgs001 said:
It'll look like a star at anything less than probably about 2000mm
Click to expand...

Wasn't the 100mm suggested to get them both in frame though? Not sure how close together they'll be myself. The 100mm seemed short to me too but I read it on the BBC website.
 
Lazlo Woodbine said:
Wasn't the 100mm suggested to get them both in frame though? Not sure how close together they'll be myself. The 100mm seemed short to me too but I read it on the BBC website.
Click to expand...

yes totally.. I just wanted to make it clear that it's only gonna look like a star till you get up to very long focal lengths. Even then an SLR has too big a sensor.

Checking on my Planetarium software, I think that they will fit in the same frame with a 100mm lens. I think the beehive cluster (Bang in the middle between them) would look great if it could be pulled out too, but I think it'll just be washed out by the moon.
 
jgs001 said:
yes totally.. I just wanted to make it clear that it's only gonna look like a star till you get up to very long focal lengths. Even then an SLR has too big a sensor.

Checking on my Planetarium software, I think that they will fit in the same frame with a 100mm lens. I think the beehive cluster (Bang in the middle between them) would look great if it could be pulled out too, but I think it'll just be washed out by the moon.
Click to expand...

Ahh, I see. I don't have any long telephotos unless you count the rubbish Nikon 70-300mm, so I'm going to have a go at getting both in frame with my 100mm. Is that on a full frame or cropped sensor do you know?

I think I may take the Fuji S5 out to try and make the most of its twin sensor high dynamic range abilities.

Look forward to seeing your shots of Mars.
 
I've only ever used a crop sensor SLR, and my astro cams are a totally different kettle of fish altogether... I was estimating based on my experiences with imaging and the very rough sizing on Stellarium...

I've had a quick check on an Astro FOV calculator for imaging, and at 100mm the beehive fits very neatly in the centre of the frame, so yes 100mm on a crop sensor SLR should indeed fit both the Moon and Mars.
 
jgs001 said:
I've only ever used a crop sensor SLR, and my astro cams are a totally different kettle of fish altogether... I was estimating based on my experiences with imaging and the very rough sizing on Stellarium...

I've had a quick check on an Astro FOV calculator for imaging, and at 100mm the beehive fits very neatly in the centre of the frame, so yes 100mm on a crop sensor SLR should indeed fit both the Moon and Mars.
Click to expand...

Thanks very much. Fingers crossed for clear skies.
 
jgs001 said:
I've only ever used a crop sensor SLR, and my astro cams are a totally different kettle of fish altogether...
Click to expand...

John - I've been trying to track down a suitable (cheap) webcam for the scope. Do you know of any current models that would do the job? Tescos have a Logitech C250 for £15 at the moment http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.206-0381.aspx but I can't find out whether it is suitable or not.

Unfortunately it'll be a while before I can stretch to a dedicated astro CCD :'(
 
Paul, tell me about it... I'd love a decent cooled ccd.. with an APS-C sized sensor... It's not gonna happen anytime soon, for that much money, I could get an MPE65, ring flash, 100-400L and a couple of other lenses.

I'm using my QHY5v guide camera (£159). But Amazon and Ebay have the Philips SPC900 pop up from time to time, or get the Celestron NexImage (it's the same guts, but a different box to the SPC900). They can both be had for under £100.

I don't know the logitech's, the difficulty is the control of the gain of the sensor. A lot of the real cheapy webcams are stuck on auto gain, and the amount of black in the FOV pushes the gain way up blowing out the target completely.
 
the moon looked rather large as i drove home earlier,there should be time to try different lens surely?
 
Apparently its 30% brighter because its at its closest point to earth at the moment.:cool:
 
And also it's the worst time to photograph the moon. Full moon means no shadows.

Paul
 
Iv'e just been out and it is very visable to the left of the moon from here in Bolton, and getting both the moon and mars in shot you don't need that big a lens about 100mm is pretty right but getting it to expose for both the moon and mars is impossible mars is dark if visable and the moon is correct or mars is visable but the moon is blown.

Im gonna go have another try before I go out for the evening
 
Mars and the moon must have been a bit too far apart when I went out...
Had to make a 100% crop of Mars to even make it visible at 800px.

4314564336_19eabc848e_o.jpg


Oh, and I tilted the camera to make full use of the diagonal frame.
 
Mars is so small I can't get a decent shot of it.

I'm trying 100-400 & 2x TC & 1.4x TC, approx 800mm :D

makes manual focussing fun, but the moon is almost full frame on the camera

iso1600, f11, 1/320 sec
IMG_14822.jpg
 
Here's one from me Moon and Mars 29/01/10.
Looks much better through binoculars though.
showphoto.php
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This is my shot, the camera was at 436mm and its a 300% crop you can make out the atmospheric dust, polar cap (blur at the top) at least I think that's what it is lol

4314145987_9e17f3af49_o.jpg
 
Mars at 100% crop shot with a Sigma 150-500 +1.4 the Moon is about 33% crop ratio to give an idea of the relative size. I wonder how much a Canon Hubble IS would be :lol:

http://SPAM/c3whur/jan/IMG_1124c.jpg

http://SPAM/c3whur/jan/IMG_1127c.jpg
 
Here you go... I posted my shot of Mars at 5200mm focal length seperately

moonandmars.jpg
 
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