Mars on November 29th, 2009
Sketch and Details by Frank McCabe
As the month of November closes Mars appears larger (9.8” arc) in the eyepiece than earlier in the month. The distance to the red planet at the time of the sketch was 143,600 km. (89, 200 miles). It is nice to see Mars so high in the morning sky, growing bigger and brighter each day as the distances continues to close.
The central meridian was at about 10° lomgitude at the time of the sketch. When I finished I checked a Mars map to identify features I was seeing during moments of good seeing. From north to south they were: the North Polar cap, Mare Acidalium, Niliacus Lacus, central Chryse, the side by side sinuses of Margaritifer and Aurorae, and finally Mare Erythraeum. If you are up before daybreak on a clear morning step outside and take a look at Mars as its disk gets bigger and brighter.
Sketching:
White sketching paper 8″ x 6″; HB graphite pencil, soft charcoal pencil for sky background, blending stump for blending orange Crayola pencil. Brightness decreased at scanning by -2 using scanner
Date 11/29/2009 – Time 8:00-9:15 UT
Telescope: 10 inch f/5.7 Dobsonian and 6mm eyepiece 261x
Temperature: 9°C (39°F)
partly cloudy, humid, calm
Transparency 4/5
Seeing: Pickering 7/10
Frank McCabe
Frank,
It is very good and real view of Mars.
I have question. Did You notice any signs of ice on second pole? I saw bright, white, diamond point.
Marek
PS Sketches, without computer process, look lovely! 😀
Marek,
Thank you, and no I did not note any brighting at the south polar region. I’ll be looking next time.
Frank 🙂
I agree with Marek (acording – sketches without computer processing), Even hand-drawn background …! :)very nice and natural planetary sketch. Unfortunately I did not observed Mars yet,( this means, this year :))
Robert
Robert,
Thank you, I hope you get a chance to observe the red planet soon.
Frank