Late Night Mars, 2003/9/5 UT

was able to observe Mars for the first time in a week this morning
using the 17" f/15 classical Cassegrain at the ASH Naylor Observatory
(http://www.astrohbg.org) under conditions of variable seeing that
ranged from average to poor. After the clouds began to clear (a bit
later than originally forecasted) the transparency steadily improved.
Magnifications used spanned the range of 162x to 404x; color filters
employed were a Wratten #21, a Wratten #30, and a newly acquired 2"
Wratten #85. When the seeing deteriorated I stopped the scope down to
10 and 6 inches.

The Pipe (Sinus Sabaeus and Sinus Meridiani) was very prominent. At
6:46 UT the Bowl of the Pipe or the so-called Claw straddled the CM.
Morning clouds were visible in the southern hemisphere of the
following limb.

I spent a little time doing some casual DSO viewing as well. M37, M38,
M36, NGC 7293 (with an Orion UltraBlock filter), and M42 were my
targets.

Dave Mitsky