Mars-comparo

I altered the sizes of these images to the same scale to show the differences in processing methods. The original (left) is pretty much as the camera saw it, with just slight sharpening due to stacking and wavelets in Registax. No color balance applied. The odd cast is due to the FL-D filter, which enhances the contrast of surface features. The redo (right) is a natural color balance, as well as sharpening due to extreme processing by resampling (enlarging) the original AVI file frames and picking 5 different alignment points, then recombining and resampling back to original size. The artifacts visible along the limb (especially on the right side) are due to the final resizing to match image scales and slight overprocessing. The major benefit is not only sharpening, but also bringing out the atmospheric details such as the clouds, polar hood and the dust storms.

 

MOUSEOVER: Alignment points.

 

If you stare at a point midway between these images and let your eyes relax, you may see a very interesting 3D coloration effect.

 

Scope and mount supplied by 3RF (see www.3rf.org).

Done