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

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.

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(c) John Stockton, nr London, UK. Turnpike v6.05 MIME.
Web URL:http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/ - FAQqish topics, acronyms & links;
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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.

"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.