Animation of Mars Rotation |
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This short
sequence clearly shows the rotation of Mars. The images is not inverted,
so the north pole of Mars is towards the top of the image and the axis
of rotation is tilted about 20-25 degrees counter clockwise. The
period covered is about 1-1/2 hours. It's shimmery because
Mars appears low in the south from my location in the USA and I get a lot
of turbulence from the atmosphere. But you can see Mars rotate and see
some nice detail early in the sequence. The later frames were not
as sharp because Mars was getting lower in the sky and getting close to
the roof tops of some neighboring townhouses.
The animation consists of about 20 individual frames taken with my MX-5C CCD and 8" LX 200 working at a focal to diameter ratio of f30. The time period between frames varies, but is usually between 3 and 5 minutes. For each frame I took a series of 10 individual images and then went back through each series and selected the best to include in the movie. |