Glittering Lights

Phobos and Deimos dance on October 1st.

This animation shows the two Mars moons, Phobos of mag 11th and Deimos of mag 12.1. The two moons are quite small and move very quickly around the planet as can be seen in this sequence covering a time span of just over 5 minutes. As the moons are very faint, I had to expose much longer to record them (exposure was 100ms with luminance filter), therefore instead of Mars globe only its intense glow is visible. I then superimposed (in negative) an image of the globe correctly exposed taken at the end of the last sequence to give an idea of the relative position of the satellites. North is up. C14 + Siebert 1.5x (@ f/16) - Drizzle 1.5x - ZWO ASI290MM - iOptron CEM120 - Singapore

Mars in Opposition October 1, 2020

An animation of a sequence of images of Mars in good seeing condition taken the night of October 1st. Each frame is obtained from 3x120 sec videos per each RGB channel. Map computation in WJ was used to remove the rind artifact from the border, while the details of the surface come from derotation of two sequences each. As time passes some features on the surface shows their change in appearance, like the huge Olympus mons (21 km high) on the top right that casts a shadow as it gets closer to the planet's border and some tiny clouds on the left of the image which appear intensifying by the grazing light. Diameter of the planet at date was close to 22.5". C14 + Siebert 1.5x (@ f/16) - Drizzle 1.5x - ZWO ASI290MM - iOptron CEM120 - Singapore

Mars on September 23, 2020

Mars in average seeing condition, derotation of 2x120 sec videos per RGB channel. Diameter of the planet at date 21.9". C14 +Siebert 1.5x (@ f/16) - Drizzle 1.5x - ZWO ASI290MM - iOptron CEM120 - Singapore