Mars - Take Two

The previous blog post documents my first shot of Mars during the close approach to Earth.  I was able to image it but not with the 3x Barlow lens as I had done with Jupiter in April.  This time I was able to image Mars with the 3x Barlow lens.  Although the images are higher in magnification they are not as clear as I had hoped.  The atmosphere was very unstable and the image was going in and out of focus.  Unfortunately this may be the best I can do until December when Mars goes to an altitude of 35 degrees.  Alternatively I could go south where Mars will be higher in the sky.  When I took this image Mars was at an altitude of 27 degrees, when I got the detailed image of Jupiter, it was at 55 degrees.  The higher you go, the less atmospheric distortion.

Image 1 - 1/320 (5/31/16)

Image 2 - 1/500 (5/31/16)

Mars

Location: Monroe, CT

Date/Time: 5/31/16 00:30 am
Camera: Canon EOS Rebel T3i, 5X Planetary Mode
Telescope: Orion ED80 80mm f/7.5 Apochromatic Refractor Telescope
Barlow: Explore Scientific 3x Barlow
Focal Length: 600mm
f/7.5
Mount: Orion Sirius EQ-G GoTo Telescope Mount
Autoguiding: none
Exposure: 1000 x 1/500s (jpeg/avi), 3000 x 1/320s (jpeg/avi)
ISO: 800
Post Processing: PIPP, Registax, Photoshop, Lightroom

Image 3 - 1/800 (5/26/16), cropped

Image 4 - 1/800 (5/26/16)

Mars
Location: Monroe, CT
Date/Time: 5/26/16 00:54 am
Camera: Canon EOS Rebel T3i, 5X Planetary Mode
Telescope: Orion ED80 80mm f/7.5 Apochromatic Refractor Telescope
Barlow: none
Focal Length: 600mm
f/7.5
Mount: Orion Sirius EQ-G GoTo Telescope Mount
Autoguiding: none
Exposure: 2000 x 1/800s (jpeg/avi)
ISO: 800
Post Processing: PIPP, Registax, Photoshop, Lightroom