Phobos




Phobos captured in an animation sequence on the night of October 25/26 2005.

The actual time span of the sequence is from 23h14m on the 25th to 00h37m on the 26th.

Equipment: 250mm f/10 LX200 at prime focus. An ATIK 1HS II with an IR blocker was used to take each 7s frame of the animation. A 1000 frame planet sequence was registered and stacked to create the central image.

The animation captures Phobos passing greatest eastern elongation and heading back in towards Mars.

A tricky capture made more so by extremely strong winds. Seeing was estimated to be 7/10 with brief periods reaching 8/10.

A single frame from the animation is shown below...