In January 2023, Mars was on its loop and at the loops end, on the 11th of January, Mars came very close to the Pleiades.
A Pleiades – Mars – Astrophoto was in my mind for quite some time now. I wanted a somewhat wider field. But since I still do not own a full format camera, this FoV is really ok – at least for now.
It was cloudy all the time, for several weeks. But the 11th of January let me see stars. And it was windy … and there were high clouds every now and then … and real clouds were on the way. And my guiding configuration did not want to work – i changed some stuff and did’nt test.
Due to this situation, i started collecting photons without guiding and used 45s exposures. I could only use 70 out of 270. Too many high clouds I could not see with the naked eye.
The result is one with a lot of compromises, but since there is no 2nd chance for the moment, i am still very happy with it.
Reprocessing
I reprocessed this astrophoto in december 2023. Here is the old result:
High resolution on Flickr:
Technical overview
| Telescope | Olympus Zuiko Auto-T MC 2.8 |
| Focal Length | 135mm |
| Aperture ratio | 5.6 |
| Erecting Lense | – |
| Filter | – |
| Mount | Skywatcher HEQ-5 |
| Goto-Control | EKOS |
| Mount Control | INDI |
| Guiding Scope Focal Length | – |
| Guiding Camera | – |
| Guiding Software | EKOS, INDI |
| Dithering | – |
| Camera | CANON EOS M100 |
| Method | focal projection |
| Camera angle | -30° (Stellarium) |
| Camera Control | EKOS, INDI, Gphoto2 |
| Motor-Focus | – |
| Photography Date | 01/11/2023 |
| Exposure-Time Lights | 88x45s |
| Correction frames | FLATS, BIASES |
| Sensitivity | ISO 800 |
| Post Processing Date | 01/12/2023 |
| Reprocessing Date | 12/12/2023 |
| Stacking, Integration | PixInsight |
| Post Processing Software | PixInsight |
| Image Editing | Affinity Photo |
| Reprocessing | PixInsight |
| Capture Place | Koblenz, Germany |
| Lightpollution | Bortle 5 |
| Scattered light | strong |
