Telescope Reviews: Mars 15/08/09

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Astrophotography and Sketching >> Sketching

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Kris.
Carpal Tunnel

Reged: 09/16/04

Loc: Belgium

Mars 15/08/09
#3273674 - 08/15/09 05:01 AM

here's a sketch done this morning using my 12" dob. seeing was fair but Mars was showing it's 'boring' side.

not very much recorded, Mare Cimmerium was the only dark feature i could see across the globe. the area south of Mare Cimmerium (Eridiani & Ausonia i believe) was a brighter yellow in color than the more orange dessert on the northern hemisphere (Elysia-um & Aetheria?).
i could however for the first time clearly see the north polar hood, it even had a faint bluish/grey teint.
two bright patches of haze or limb brightening were also seen at the edge of the disk.

i used no filters, but during the whole observation i made use of an apodizing mask, this has worked miracles on Jupiter and, to a lesser extent, improves the view of mars as well!

good luck with your observations!

Post Extras:

dweller25
Pooh-Bah

Reged: 08/30/07

Loc: Lancashire, UK

Re: Mars 15/08/09 new

[Re: Kris.]
#3273896 - 08/15/09 10:06 AM

Very nice Kris, well done.

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Tommy5
Carpal Tunnel

Reged: 03/28/04

Loc: Chicagoland

Re: Mars 15/08/09 new

[Re: dweller25]
#3273923 - 08/15/09 10:26 AM

Nice detail, i heard a lot of good things about the simple apodizing mask.

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JayinUT
I'm not Sleepy

Reged: 09/19/08

Loc: Utah

Re: Mars 15/08/09 new

[Re: Tommy5]
#3274195 - 08/15/09 01:25 PM

Kris,

Your making me want to study Mars in detail. Thanks for sharing and pipping my interest in this planet.

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mike bacanin
Carpal Tunnel

Reged: 03/19/07

Re: Mars 15/08/09 new

[Re: JayinUT]
#3274462 - 08/15/09 04:03 PM

Kris,

That is a beautiful rendering of Mars.

Mike

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frank5817
Postmaster

Reged: 06/13/06

Loc: Illinois

Re: Mars 15/08/09 new

[Re: mike bacanin]
#3274486 - 08/15/09 04:27 PM

Kris,

Your Mars sketch is beautiful. With Mars still a long way off you are creating some nice sketches and this is the best one yet.

Frank

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kraterkid
Post Laureate

Reged: 03/07/05

Loc: Jacumba, California

Re: Mars 15/08/09 new

[Re: frank5817]
#3275173 - 08/16/09 12:46 AM

Kris your Mars sketches are simply top notch!

Very subtle and atmospheric limb glow and terminator. Wonderful color over the entire Martian disc. Lovely albedo!

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Dee
scholastic sledgehammer

Reged: 03/12/06

Loc: Ireland

Re: Mars 15/08/09 new

[Re: kraterkid]
#3275356 - 08/16/09 07:42 AM

That is really really cool, it is so difficult to sketch Mars >
I got up very early this morning to sketch the Moon and Mars close to each other , but a million clouds prevented that happening.

Lucky you

Dee

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Shannon s
sage

Reged: 06/21/09

Loc: Bartow FL.

Re: Mars 15/08/09 new

[Re: Dee]
#3275387 - 08/16/09 08:34 AM

Very nice Kris. Very faint detail caught.

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phxbird
sage

Reged: 12/24/07

Loc: New Mexico, USA

Re: Mars 15/08/09 new

[Re: Shannon s]
#3275470 - 08/16/09 10:02 AM

I have not even tried to sketch Mars lately. Since it is only 5" I did not think I could see enough to sketch. Now I will have to rethink this philosophy! Very nice work. What medium did you use? Very good coloring and reproduces the subtle features you see through the eyepiece very well!

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Kris.
Carpal Tunnel

Reged: 09/16/04

Loc: Belgium

Re: Mars 15/08/09 new

[Re: phxbird]
#3275700 - 08/16/09 12:30 PM

thanks for the comments guys!

Jay, i'm looking forward to your observations!

Dee, i'm sorry to hear bad weather prevented you from sketching this morning, it has happened to me quite a few times as well

phxbird, i use color pencils on standard white copy paper. i then scan the sketch in and sometimes adjust the brightness and/or contrast levels a bit. this sketch needed no adjustement.

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phxbird
sage

Reged: 12/24/07

Loc: New Mexico, USA

Re: Mars 15/08/09 new

[Re: Kris.]
#3276044 - 08/16/09 03:52 PM

That's what I thought. I am borrowing my wifes colored pencils and will give it a shot soon!

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Jef De Wit
Carpal Tunnel

Reged: 03/06/09

Loc: Hove, Belgium

Re: Mars 15/08/09 new

[Re: phxbird]
#3276066 - 08/16/09 04:07 PM

Hello Kris

Nice sketch! And thanks for your support to try to see some detail in Mars with my 7 cm refractor. But it didn't work... I will tell you my first try with my 30 cm dobson.

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Special Ed
Postmaster

Reged: 05/18/03

Loc: Greenbrier Co., WV 38N, 80W

Re: Mars 15/08/09 new

[Re: Jef De Wit]
#3278067 - 08/17/09 03:23 PM Attachment (52 downloads)

Really fine sketch, Kris! You do a great job rendering Mars with those color pencil--very subtle and realistic. Keep up the good work.

Your sketch reminded me of one of the earliest Mars sketches, done by Cassini's nephew Giocomo Maraldi. See any resemblance?

[The sketch is from the book, The Exploration of Mars by Werner von Braun and Chesley Bonestell]

More on Marldi here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giacomo_F._Maraldi

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Kris.
Carpal Tunnel

Reged: 09/16/04

Loc: Belgium

Re: Mars 15/08/09 new

[Re: Special Ed]
#3279146 - 08/18/09 05:45 AM

Thanks Michael, yes indeed there is a resemblance

i doubt Maraldi was watching the same side of mars, too bad we'll never know what he saw (or is there software able to go back a few centuries

).
to me it looks a bit like one of Huyghens' sketches of Syrtis Major, take a look at his right sketch here. perhaps maraldi failed to see Syrtis Major extending further north, or there was haze obscuring it, or perhaps that feature was not as dark as it is now...

i find those old planet sketches fascinating!

i looked the book you mentioned up on amazon.com, "perhaps i'll buy it", i thought. seems they're selling from $50 up to $663

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Special Ed
Postmaster

Reged: 05/18/03

Loc: Greenbrier Co., WV 38N, 80W

Re: Mars 15/08/09 new

[Re: Kris.]
#3281843 - 08/19/09 12:25 PM Attachment (52 downloads)

Quote:

Thanks Michael, yes indeed there is a resemblance

i doubt Maraldi was watching the same side of mars, too bad we'll never know what he saw (or is there software able to go back a few centuries ).

Kris,

Most programs like Starry Night will let you go back or forward a couple of thousand years (or more). I took Mars Previewer II back to the date on Maraldi's sketch, August 19th, 1719. Unfortunately, since we don't know the time of Maraldi's observation I couldn't pinpoint the features that he sketched, but when I entered the time that Mars would have been at maximum altitude for Maraldi (36°), the CM came up 223°.

Quote:

to me it looks a bit like one of Huyghens' sketches of Syrtis Major, take a look at his right sketch here. perhaps maraldi failed to see Syrtis Major extending further north, or there was haze obscuring it, or perhaps that feature was not as dark as it is now...

Huyghens is credited with being the first to see and sketch Syrtis Major. Those two sketches of his you linked to were done many years before Maraldi. The one on the left was done on November 28th, 1659 and I believe is the first drawing of Syrtis Major. The one on the right was made on August 13th, 1672 at 10:30PM. I plugged those numbers into MPII and came up with Syrtis Major on the CM. Mars had an apparent diameter of 22.7 arcsecs on that date. Btw, this is the first sketch to clearly show the Martian South Polar Cap.

You're right--there is a resemblance to Huyghens's 1672 sketch. but I still think Maraldi sketched Mare Cimmerium--it just looks too much like your sketch. (Mars had an angular diameter of 24.8 arcsecs at the time of Maraldi's sketch)

I found another sketch that Maraldi did later in the year 1719--I think it shows that he knows what SM looks like. By this time, Mars had shrunk to 17 arcsecs.

Quote:

i find those old planet sketches fascinating!

Me, too!

Quote:

i looked the book you mentioned up on amazon.com, "perhaps i'll buy it", i thought. seems they're selling from $50 up to $663

Yes, it's a collectors item. I was fortunate to borrow a copy from a friend for a little while back in 2003. It no doubt contributed greatly to my Mars Mania.

Edited by Special Ed (08/19/09 12:48 PM)

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Kris.
Carpal Tunnel

Reged: 09/16/04

Loc: Belgium

Re: Mars 15/08/09 new

[Re: Special Ed]
#3283282 - 08/20/09 04:11 AM

Michael, thanks for your digging work

amazing coincidence that the suspected cm for maraldi could also have been 223°

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JimPie
sage

Reged: 11/10/07

Loc: S.E.Michigan

Re: Mars 15/08/09 new

[Re: Kris.]
#3283328 - 08/20/09 05:07 AM

Kris
What a great sketch. It not only makes me want to view mars more, It also makes me want to build one of those apodizing mask.

Jim

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Kris.
Carpal Tunnel

Reged: 09/16/04

Loc: Belgium

Re: Mars 15/08/09 new

[Re: JimPie]
#3283520 - 08/20/09 09:23 AM

thanks Jim, give making such a mask a try, it's well worth it imo.

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rolandlinda3
Post Laureate

Reged: 01/24/06

Loc: Crozet VA 22932

Re: Mars 15/08/09 new

[Re: Kris.]
#3283698 - 08/20/09 11:16 AM

Very nice, Kris. And, now that you have had time with it, still love that 12 inches of aperture with sketching?? ...and how about the binoviewers??

Clear skies.

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