MarsWatch 1996-1997

Images of Mars from Astronomers Around the World

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Linking Amateur and Professional Mars Observing Communities

for Observational Support of the Mars Pathfinder Mission

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Mars image acquired on May 2 1997 using a D.30 cm F/24 Cassegrain telescope at direct focus and a DTA HiRes 400E CCD camera (KAF-400E chip, 768x512 pixels, 16 bit A/D converter).

The image is the enhanced sum of 11 normalized original frames. Exposure times are 0.1 sec with photometric filter I (centered at 820 nm).

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
5. Histogram stretching for exposure matching

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