I decided to try a slightly different approach to Mars processing. I captured 2 AVIs last time I imaged Mars and I decided to combine them in PIPP, a free software package that allows pre processing of planetary video captures before stacking with separate software (like AstroSurface). One option is a "join" function for video files. Using this function, I combined the two separate SER files into one AVI with just over 23,000 frames. I then stacked the image in Autostakkert, selecting the best 50% of the frames.
Although the images of Mars in the last post look very like the Martian map in terms of color, etc., they are not an accurate representation of the way the planet looks through the eyepiece. Visually, Mars is not deep orange, but is more of a pale ochre color. The dark areas are not black, but have a bluish cast to them. In addition, the images have a prominent ring, or "rind" to them--it can be seen close to the edge of the planet. The rind has a number of causes, but is primarily an artifact of wavelet processing. Fixing the problem is also complex and challenging, but one way is to minimally process the image to reduce (but not eliminate) the effect.
I processed the large image stack mentioned above in Registax using this more minimalistic record. The result is a more natural looking image of the red planet that still shows some subtle detail, including some edge haze missing from the previous images.
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