MarsWatch 1996-1997

Images of Mars from Astronomers Around the World

---

Linking Amateur and Professional Mars Observing Communities

for Observational Support of the Mars Pathfinder Mission

---

Back to the MarsWatch Home Page

Sequence of Mars images (m970117.jpg (32K), mi970117.jpg (32K), mt970117.jpg (40K), mv970117.jpg (32K)) acquired on 17 January 1997 using a D.30 cm F/24 Cassegrain telescope at direct focus and an ISIS CCD-800 camera (KAF-400 chip, 768x512 pixels, 14 bit A/D converter). Each monochrome image is the enhanced sum of four normalized original frames. Each color image is the result of the composition of 12 images (4 B, 4 V and 4 R).

The enhancement was obtained by:
1) Image restoration using the Van Cittert algorithm
2) Fourier filtering using the Butterworth low-pass filter
3) Contrast enhancement using unsharp masking
4) Image enlargement by 50% using biquadratic interpolation

Exp.times for each filter:
4 sec with B filter (centered at 420 nm)
0.4 sec with V filter (centered at 530 nm)
0.2 sec with R filter (centered at 610 nm)
0.2 sec with I filter (centered at 820 nm)

Authors: A.Leo, G.Quarra, S.Mannino
San Gersole` Planetary Group - Florence (ITALY)
U.A.I. - Planetary Section, Mars Program