After reading about the Mars Global Surveyor pictures showing evidence for water oozing out of Martian cliffs, I wondered if it might be possible to verify any of this using my new Nikon Coolpix 990 digital camera with my specially-designed SuperColossal telephoto attachment lens.

The seeing was good last night, so I gave it a try.

Figure 1.  Mars, using a Meade LX200 10-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope and the digital camera without the SuperColossal telephoto attachment.

The SuperCollosal telephoto lens has several "stages."  The first stage provides only moderate magnification.  Here's what happened after I used the first stage.

Figure 2.  This is Mars after installing stage-one of the SuperColossal telephoto lens.  Note that Mars has rotated some during the time it took to install stage-one of the SuperCollosal telephoto lens.
 

OK, it's time to attach the next stage of the SuperColossal telephoto attachment lens to the Nikon Coolpix 990 digital camera, which is mounted at the eyepiece of my Meade telescope.

Figure 2.  This may not look like much, but it's actually a very, very big zoom of a channel on Mars.  Too bad it's not sharp enough to show the sought-for water marks.

Let's try some image sharpening software that I recently bought.

Figure 3.  Hey, maybe we've got something here!  Look at the several channels of evidence for recent water running down the slope. And notice that the channels originate from a level mid-way up he slope, just like in the Mars Global Surveyor pictures.

Let's try to sharpen this image some more, using my new program's contrast enhancement and gamma function.

Figure 4.  Wow!  Now we can really see the water channels!

What's more amazing about this last image is that it shows things of even greater interest than are seen on the Mars Global Surveyor pictures.  For example, I think I see evidence for "vegetation" at levels below where the water comes out.  If these images ever get out into the public domain, they could really enliven the future of NASA's Mars exploration program - thanks to my amazing SuperColossal telephoto lens attachment for the Nikon Coolpix 990 digital camera.
 

Photos courtesy of Bruce L ("LegPuller") Gary

Return to list of other amazing Nikon Coolpix 990 pictures.

This site opened:  June 25, 2000.  Last Update: June 23, 2001