10 replies to this topic

[Paul G. Abel]

Greetings all,

 

Please find attached two Mars drawings I made last night.  The planet has now climbed out of the murk a little and is above the houses from my location.  Unusually we had some good seeing and very transparent skies (normally the best planetary conditions occur when it is misty or slightly foggy).

 

The main feature on the disk was the Solis Lacus feature.  I think I may have observed a brighter region over/near Pyrrhae Regio but I can't be certain.  The whole of the prec. limb seemed quite bright, and in the far south a small south polar cap could be made out.

 

Best wishes,

-Paul

 

[PeterDob]

Paul... that is simply stunning, as always. You don't get discouraged by Mars being so distant now, do you?

 

Peter

[k.s.min]

Good  observation  of  many  details   for  a   small  instrument.

The  Mars  gives  enough  reward  to  the  observer  even  at  smallest  angular size.

[bikerdib]

Wow, that's quite a lot of detail for Mars in its current orbital position.  Nice!

[Paul G. Abel]

Thanks all- glad you like the drawings!  To be honest I was really quite surprised the seeing conditions were so reasonable given the altitude.  The planet is now at 6.6" and so to see anything meaningful it requires a power of x300 or more.  I intend to follow the planet until it gets down to 6"- maybe even less!  Of course it will become very challenging to see anything at all (even with a large telescope) when the planet drops below 5". 

[flt158]

Gosh! At 312X you truly can see the "Eye" of Mars. 

That's Solis Lacus as Paul states.

 

Aubrey.

[Paul G. Abel]

It's unusual to get a very transparent night and good seeing conditions in my experience!

[happylimpet]

I was imaging Mars from Southampton at the same time! Here's an IR image (807nm longpass) taken at 1749.   Interesting to compare.

 

[niteskystargazer]

Paul,

 

Very nice sketches of  Mars (On 29th November)   .

 

CS,KLU,

 

 ,

 

Tom

[denis0007dl]

All I can say is... 

[Paul G. Abel]

Thanks all!  In fact Mars is a little more forgiving at lower altitudes due to its red colouration- lower energy wavelengths (like red light) are not as disturbed by poor seeing as blue light so it's certainly worth following the planet for a while yet!

 

Regards,

-Paul