Mars via 3" Refractor


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  • Borg 76ED / 16mm Unitron eyepiece (afocal projection)
  • Imaged on Sony DCR-TRV315 Digital 8 Camcorder
  • Processed with Registax & Photoshop
  • OCA Anza Site, Anza, CA
  • 16 Aug. 2003 @ ~ 0346-0347 PDT (1 minute sequence)
   
This image was shot as an experiment using what is normally considered to be a small scope for planetary imaging (3" refractor). It was shot with the last 5 minutes of tape at the end of the night ~3:45AM PDT, when Mars was already past its high point for the night and seeing was clearly already deteriorating. But it turned out surprisingly well, probably due to the fact that the seeing cell sizes were such that the 3" aperture was looking through a single cell at a time. This seemed to be the case because the planet shape stayed constant -- i.e. it bounced around due to the atmospheric seeing, but did not deform in shape as was happening in the C11.

Copyright 2003 by David A. Kodama, All Rights Reserved