Mars, a pleasant surprise

Well after all the lousy weather we've had here in Houston all summer
I finally got around to looking at Mars. Remembering what I saw
during the disappointing dust storms two years ago I was expecting
little, so I was truly shocked at the clarity of the features. A few
of us got together in Memorial Park near downtown Houston and looked
at the Moon, Mars, and Uranus through my 8" f/6 Dob on EQ platform.

The seeing was decent, confirmed after easily resolving the four
craterlets in Plato on the Moon at 243x. The double craterlet NW of
the center craterlet was easily resolved into two. So we turned the
scope to Mars and even the rank newbies with me immediately identified
the polar cap and saw various shapes in the markings. To me, the big
dark mass in the middle looked like a tiger leaping. To Pierre and
Philip, part of it looked like the bottom half of Texas. Danielle
thought it looked like Florida. Only Joy was unable to really see
anything besides the polar cap. The point is, when people who've
never used a telescope before are describing shapes in the features on
Mars, you know this is the time to look at the red planet. It wasn't
near this good two years ago.

Though we only looked at Mars for about a half hour at powers ranging
from 174x to 304x, I was able to identify some of the features from
the Mars Previewer program. The long curving arm of Sinus Sabaeus
extended to the eastern limb. The part that looked like the coast of
Texas to Philip and Pierre, and to me like the tiger's belly, was
Deltoton Sinus extending into Syrtis Major. Mare Serpentis was the
head of the tiger, with the large body behind consisting of Iapygia
Viridis and Mare Tyrrhenum. We didn't have time to try a filter, but
the unfiltered view was plenty engaging.

Why does the Mars Previewer program show a double polar cap? The only
one we saw was the upper one.

Uranus was nice too, though tough to find with the very few guide
stars visible near downtown Houston. A couple of us were able to see
the tiny disc at 55x. 174x convinced all but Danielle, who needed
304x to see that it was a planet.

I hope to get a much longer look tomorrow night and really drink in
the view. But for those of you who haven't got a chance yet, do
whatever it takes to look at Mars, the features are truly jumping out
right now!!

Ritesh

Hi Ritesh,
Being from Texas, didn't you see the UT Longhorn logo on Mars??? g

Peace,
Jon


"Axel" wrote in message
om...
Well after all the lousy weather we've had here in Houston all summer
I finally got around to looking at Mars. Remembering what I saw
during the disappointing dust storms two years ago I was expecting
little, so I was truly shocked at the clarity of the features. A few
of us got together in Memorial Park near downtown Houston and looked
at the Moon, Mars, and Uranus through my 8" f/6 Dob on EQ platform.

The seeing was decent, confirmed after easily resolving the four
craterlets in Plato on the Moon at 243x. The double craterlet NW of
the center craterlet was easily resolved into two. So we turned the
scope to Mars and even the rank newbies with me immediately identified
the polar cap and saw various shapes in the markings. To me, the big
dark mass in the middle looked like a tiger leaping. To Pierre and
Philip, part of it looked like the bottom half of Texas. Danielle
thought it looked like Florida. Only Joy was unable to really see
anything besides the polar cap. The point is, when people who've
never used a telescope before are describing shapes in the features on
Mars, you know this is the time to look at the red planet. It wasn't
near this good two years ago.

Though we only looked at Mars for about a half hour at powers ranging
from 174x to 304x, I was able to identify some of the features from
the Mars Previewer program. The long curving arm of Sinus Sabaeus
extended to the eastern limb. The part that looked like the coast of
Texas to Philip and Pierre, and to me like the tiger's belly, was
Deltoton Sinus extending into Syrtis Major. Mare Serpentis was the
head of the tiger, with the large body behind consisting of Iapygia
Viridis and Mare Tyrrhenum. We didn't have time to try a filter, but
the unfiltered view was plenty engaging.

Why does the Mars Previewer program show a double polar cap? The only
one we saw was the upper one.

Uranus was nice too, though tough to find with the very few guide
stars visible near downtown Houston. A couple of us were able to see
the tiny disc at 55x. 174x convinced all but Danielle, who needed
304x to see that it was a planet.

I hope to get a much longer look tomorrow night and really drink in
the view. But for those of you who haven't got a chance yet, do
whatever it takes to look at Mars, the features are truly jumping out
right now!!

Ritesh

Jax wrote:
Hi Ritesh,
Being from Texas, didn't you see the UT Longhorn logo on Mars??? g

Peace,
Jon


Hah!! I thought it was just me that saw that!! So I am *not* crazy. :-)

Hi there. You posted:

Why does the Mars Previewer program show a double polar cap? The only
one we saw was the upper one.

It probably shows a fixed or calculated cap size which is larger than the real
one. The northern limb should look bluish or whiter at times due to the
"polar hood" around the northern pole, so you might see that. I have seen the
hood for a couple of months, but not the northern cap itself, as it is
pretty much "over the horizon" due to the tilt of Mars right now, although we
see the southern cap just fine even as it is rapidly shrinking. Clear skies
to you.
--
David W. Knisely
Prairie Astronomy Club: http://www.prairieastronomyclub.org
Hyde Memorial Observatory: http://www.hydeobservatory.info/

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