Mars on Sergey's Astrophotography

Mars: Late-Season Detail

Fri, 07 Mar 2025 23:36:00 +0000

Nearly seven weeks past opposition, Mars has shrunk to the smallest disk of the sequence, and a faint gibbous phase softens its eastern edge. Despite the reduced size, the bright polar cap and a subtle dark marking are still resolved, bookending the site’s coverage of the 2025 apparition.

Captured as a luminance video sequence, derotated in WinJUPOS, stacked in AutoStakkert!3, and processed in PixInsight.

Mars: A Shrinking Disk

Thu, 20 Feb 2025 22:53:00 +0000

More than a month past opposition, Mars’s apparent size has noticeably shrunk as Earth pulls ahead in its faster orbit. A distinct bluish haze wraps the limb, and dark markings remain visible across the disk’s center on a clean, low-noise background.

Captured as luminance and RGB video sequences, derotated in WinJUPOS, stacked in AutoStakkert!3, and processed in PixInsight.

Mars: A Broad Dark Region

Fri, 07 Feb 2025 01:15:00 +0000

A wide, diffuse dark region covers much of the lower half of the disk in this capture, contrasting against the pale orange upper latitudes and a small bright cap at the northern limb.

Captured as luminance and RGB video sequences, derotated in WinJUPOS, stacked in AutoStakkert!3, and processed in PixInsight.

Mars: Softening Detail Post-Opposition

Tue, 04 Feb 2025 23:40:00 +0000

Three weeks past opposition, Mars is visibly smaller and softer than at its peak. A bluish-white haze still lingers over the polar hood, while faint dark markings trail along the disk’s southern limb.

The video above is the same session’s raw IR-pass footage, shown here as captured — infrared light cuts through atmospheric haze that visible-light imaging struggles with, giving a cleaner look at the surface markings even as the disk shrinks. The finished LRGB composite appears further down the page.

Mars: Polar Cap in Sharp Relief

Wed, 29 Jan 2025 00:38:00 +0000

Less than two weeks past opposition, the disk has only just begun to shrink. The north polar cap stands out here in vivid blue-white contrast against the orange disk, with a compact dark marking still sharply resolved nearby.

Captured as luminance and RGB video sequences, derotated in WinJUPOS, stacked in AutoStakkert!3, and processed in PixInsight.

Mars: A Different Rotational Face

Sat, 18 Jan 2025 01:47:00 +0000

Just two days after the previous capture, Mars’s roughly 24.6-hour rotation period — only slightly longer than Earth’s — has turned a different hemisphere into view, with a distinct dark feature near the center of the disk and a pale polar hood above.

Captured as luminance and RGB video sequences, derotated in WinJUPOS, stacked in AutoStakkert!3, and processed in PixInsight.

Mars Near Opposition

Thu, 16 Jan 2025 00:51:00 +0000

Captured right around Mars’s January 2025 opposition, when Earth passed between Mars and the Sun and the planet reached its largest apparent size and peak brightness for this apparition. A broad dark marking spans the disk, bordered by a soft polar hood — the best size-to-detail trade-off of the whole sequence.

Captured as luminance and RGB video sequences, derotated in WinJUPOS, stacked in AutoStakkert!3, and processed in PixInsight.

Mars with a Bright Polar Hood

Sat, 28 Dec 2024 03:28:00 +0000

The north polar hood dominates this capture, a bright blue-white band curving over the pole while the rest of the warm orange disk carries only a faint, diffuse dark patch. Mars was now less than three weeks from opposition.

Captured as luminance and RGB video sequences, derotated in WinJUPOS, stacked in AutoStakkert!3, and processed in PixInsight.

Mars: Surface Detail Sharpens

Tue, 17 Dec 2024 03:50:00 +0000

Five nights after the previous capture, Mars presents a noticeably larger disk with crisper detail: a sharp, dark marking spans much of the visible hemisphere, and a small blue-tinted polar hood sits at the northern limb.

Captured as luminance and RGB video sequences, derotated in WinJUPOS, stacked in AutoStakkert!3, and processed in PixInsight.

Mars: Early Approach to Opposition

Thu, 12 Dec 2024 04:01:00 +0000

Captured about five weeks before Mars reached opposition in January 2025, this image shows a still-modest disk with a broad dark surface marking and a bright blue-white hood over the north pole. The first of a series tracking Mars as it grew larger and brighter approaching its closest point to Earth.

Captured as luminance and RGB video sequences, derotated in WinJUPOS, stacked in AutoStakkert!3, and processed in PixInsight.