Category: Mars

Mars – January 1, 2010
Sketch and Details by Kris Smet

Only average seeing last night, but a few good moments allowed to make a quick sketch!

Syrtis Major looked interesting, the light dessert seemed to run into Syrtis Major just above Moeris Lacus (?) the tip ended with a curved hook to the left. Hellas was the second brightest feature after the polar ice. seeing wasn’t stable enough to see any clouds over Lybia or Aeria though (left and right of Syrtis Major).

The dark plains Utopia and Boreo Syrtis above the NPC. Nodus Alcyonius was also visible at momenst of good seeing, Aetheria wasn’t however.

A lighter region, the division between Mare Cimmerium & Mare Tyrrhenum was quite easy to spot.

I chose to use the 8″ with the fan running during the sketch and an hour before because temperatures dropped to (i guess) 4 or 5°C minus.

Mars is big enough now to allow some great views if seeing cooperates!

01/01/10
location: bornem, belgium

Mars – January 11, 2010
Sketch and Details by Juan Perez (Juanchin)

Object : Planet Mars
Date : January 11, 2010
Time : 23:30 LST / 06:30 UT
Location : El Mirage Arizona USA
Instrument : CPC 1100 / 10 & 7mm Plossl’s
Magnitude : -.7 (Stellarium)
Weather : Chilly night but pleasant, upper 40’s, clear sky!

Mars is an eyecatcher for several reasons; Mars is simply at that time of its orbital cycle where it is closest to Earth and also closest
to the Sun – perihelion. Earth’s position is in the middle thus we say that Mars is at opposition. These two opportunities are not to be
missed, for Mars increases in disc size and becomes brighter by having fuller illumination of its surface by the Sun. For those of us in
the Northern hemisphere, how could you not resist pointing your telescope directly above your head and focus on the orange glowing
planet.
At 13.6 arc-seconds it doesn’t rival its disc size like that of 2003 when it increased to almost twice its size, 25 arc-seconds in
diameter.Even though I lack the eagle vision that a few of you ASOD regulars posses, I was still able to distinguish just a few albedo
features. The South and North polar caps were highly pronounced along with a stretch of bright limb haze around the edge of the disc.
The dark collar which follows the NPC was visible although it varied in its intensity, guessing from turbulence in the Earth’s atmosphere.
The most striking and noticeable dark region was that of Syrtis Major.I spent a few hours trying to work my eyesight in search of any
other subtle details which I ended alphabetizing on the sketch.
Again, Mars is at the center of attention this month and it beckons us to explore its surface details with those optical instruments.
Give it a try, for Mars is looking up! 😀

Mars – CM 313°
Sketch and Details by Kris Smet

Finally some good seeing tonight, i had a beautiful view of syrtis major, hellas, sinus sabaeus and the north polar region. finally some subtle darkness differences in syrtis major could be made out; where mare tyrrhenum runs into syrtis major and the northern tip was dark and kinda triangular. the little ‘bended hook’ was also visible. sinus sabaeus was also a bit darker. after a while i thought to see some irregularity in the npc/nph border, like a bit of it sticking out, slightly isolated.
Lybia & Aeria showed as bright patches, i guess Lybia could be clouded because it showed up brighter in blue light than Aeria.
the deucalionis region (in between sinus sabaeus and noachis) also looked brighter, but i think that might just be due to the it’s position between two darker areas.

Hopefully we can get a few more nights like this in january! it’s good sessions like these which make you forget previous frustrating views

I used my 8″ dob for this one @ 357x without filters.
the sketch is simply scanned and a bit unsharpened, no further color, brightness or contrast enhancements.

location: bornem, belgium