Mars is shown here 11 days before its 2025 opposition with Earth.

This opposition cycle is a relatively distant approach to Earth with Mars
showing a small apparent disk size of only 14 arc-seconds.

Atmosopheric seeing conditions for this session were poor (4 out of 10) with
jet stream turbulence present overhead.

Same image of Mars with major surface features labeled.

• Surface Feature Information (courtesy of WikiPedia-click on links):
  Valles Marineris
  Daedalium Planum
  Olympus Mons
  Erebus Montes
  Mars Polar Ice Cap

• NASA Mars Information (click on links):
  Mars Main Webpage
  Mars Detailed NASA Info

Image Details:

• Instrument: Takahashi Mewlon M210 Dall-Kirkham OTA Cassegrain @ native focal length of 2415mm ( f/11.5)
• Image Amplifier:  None used, ZWO ADC Unit was used.  ADC tuning by FireCapture software.
• Mount: Rainbow Astro RST-300 in EQ Mode
• Camera: ZWO ASI715MC color video camera  
• Image Scale:  0.12 arc-seconds/pixel
• Filters:  Baader IR/UV Cutoff Filter
• Exposure:  16-bit .Ser files, 3000 frames, shot @ 130 frames per second.  Best 70% of stack saved and processed (2100 frames used from stack).
• Software: FireCapture V.2.7.14 capture software, Auto-Stakkert V.4, Registax Wavelets Ver. 6, WinJupos v.12.1.13, PixInsight Post-Processing.
• PixInsight Processing Steps (listed in order):  MLT, GreyCStoration, UnSharp Mask, ACDNR, HT, CT for color adjustments, Dynamic Crop, Resample
• Location: Little Rock, AR., El. 350ft
  Image Date:  04:57 UTC January 4th, 2025