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Observing the Night Sky on Mars
I sent this question to "Ask Alan" at Astronomy Now magazine but didn't even receive an acknowledgement so now it's your turn... ;-) Given that Mars can be a pretty dusty place and so the sky is 'pink', yet the atmosphere is exceedingly thin, and of course there are no artificial lights, how good would the view of the night sky be? Assume a sandstorm is not blowing. Need to know before I decide whether it'll be worth lugging my 3-inch refractor there... Thanks, Steve |
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Observing the Night Sky on Mars
In uk.sci.astronomy message , Sun,
25 Apr 2010 20:05:13, Podger posted: Given that Mars can be a pretty dusty place and so the sky is 'pink', yet the atmosphere is exceedingly thin, and of course there are no artificial lights, how good would the view of the night sky be? Assume a sandstorm is not blowing. Dust will not matter so much in the absence of street lights etc., and there will not be much moonlight. -- (c) John Stockton, nr London, UK. Turnpike v6.05 MIME. Web URL:http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/ - FAQqish topics, acronyms & links; Astro stuff via astron-1.htm, gravity0.htm ; quotings.htm, pascal.htm, etc. No Encoding. Quotes before replies. Snip well. Write clearly. Don't Mail News. |
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Observing the Night Sky on Mars
On Sun, 25 Apr 2010 23:35:15 +0100, Dr J R Stockton wrote:
In uk.sci.astronomy message , Sun, 25 Apr 2010 20:05:13, Podger posted: Given that Mars can be a pretty dusty place and so the sky is 'pink', yet the atmosphere is exceedingly thin, and of course there are no artificial lights, how good would the view of the night sky be? Assume a sandstorm is not blowing. Dust will not matter so much in the absence of street lights etc., and there will not be much moonlight. and you'd also get much less atmospheric attenuation at IR and UV wavelengths (not that on eyeballer could take advantage). However, if you're planning a trip, the moon would be slightly better (even less atmosphere) and easier to get to. |
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Observing the Night Sky on Mars
"pete" wrote in message ... and you'd also get much less atmospheric attenuation at IR and UV wavelengths (not that on eyeballer could take advantage). However, if you're planning a trip, the moon would be slightly better (even less atmosphere) and easier to get to. I'll take Mars thanks. More like a real planet. Since the sky there is pink I guess (everything I say here is a fairly uninformed guess) that red light must be scattered more than blue. So the resulting view of the heavenly objects would be deficient in red and tend to be bluish though not noticeable to the eye at low stellar light levels. The contrast with the dark sky would remain excellent, due to the lack of artificial lighting, at least for now... The question is how many magnitudes would be lost due to absorption in the atmosphere. The answer is probably 'not many' since the view the other way - looking in on Mars' surface - is so good. |
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