First, is there any astronomical significance to 1 January? In 2009, there is. It's the beginning of the International Year of Astronomy!
Next, Mars was very close to opposition at this time, so feature should be visible on its surface. I stacked images and used Registax to make them more visible. Registax is available at:
http://www.astronomie.be/registax/
The Mars Profiler is available from Sky and Telescope Magazine at the first link on this page:
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/javascript/3307831.html
Wouldn't the stacked result be clearer if you use more magnification in your video? The result looks like a blurred pixelated image so I wonder if the small number of pixels covered by Mars was limiting the clarity. Even if it was hard to aim the scope so precisely, couldn't registax compensate for your shaky control by tracking the image?
joshig1983 3 years ago