129 replies to this topic

[Dave Mitsky]

I had my best views of Mars so far this apparition tonight using the Naylor Observatory's 17" f/15 classical Cassegrain at 249x (25mm Celestron X-Cel Lx with a CCM30 magenta color filter).

[Cpk133]

Mars was AMAZING this evening. 75-77 degrees in elevation, seeing could support 400x, the polar cap, Syrtis Major, Hesperia Planum, Utopia Planitia,Elysium Planitia, all were easy. It looked better/more interesting than Jupiter.

Jealous, it’s been cold cloudy and windy here.  Just spent the day making a makeshift mailbox in a bucket after some unknown reckless motorist took out both my neighbor's and my mailboxes.  The ground is frozen rock solid.  

[Josephus Miller]

I was out yesterday evening with Mars. It's nice that it's so high at such an early hour now, but on the flip side it seemed to me, for the first time this opposition, to be visibly shrinking from it's mid-January maximum angular size. It's still 13 arcsec, but it's smaller. 

 

Also, the "boring*" side was facing me--the Amazonis side. I recorded a faint smudge that could have been Sirenum, but confidence is low. On the other hand, the polar cap was still plain to see. 

 

 

*At least to me, because with my scopes and prevailing seeing, I almost never detect any albedo features on this hemisphere. 

[deSitter]

I was out yesterday evening with Mars. It's nice that it's so high at such an early hour now, but on the flip side it seemed to me, for the first time this opposition, to be visibly shrinking from it's mid-January maximum angular size. It's still 13 arcsec, but it's smaller. 

 

Also, the "boring*" side was facing me--the Amazonis side. I recorded a faint smudge that could have been Sirenum, but confidence is low. On the other hand, the polar cap was still plain to see. 

 

 

*At least to me, because with my scopes and prevailing seeing, I almost never detect any albedo features on this hemisphere. 

It's a bit of a bummer that Mars' day length is about the same as Earth's. That means the same side will present at about the same time each night, and a week or so is necessary to bring the interesting side into view.

 

The last aphelic opposition back in 2009 or so had a lot of ice clouds, which were interesting to observe (it's very cold there now). I didn't see any when I was out a few days ago. The polar cap seems very large and the band around it is always interesting. I remember when these fleeting dark bands were thought to vegetation responding to melt water

 

I think the next good night I will set up my 5" Mak on my front porch and catch Mars setting in the west during the wee hours. The interesting side should be in view at that hour.

 

-drl

Edited by deSitter, 09 February 2025 - 09:14 AM.

[Dave Mitsky]

The seeing was far from perfect but I observed Mars with my 6" f/7.9 Apertura AD6 Dob, a 6mm Delos (200x), and an 8mm Delos (150x) on Friday night.  I also used a Tele Vue Bandmate Type A Mars filter, a Baader Moon & Skyglow Neodymnium filter, and both filters stacked.  I preferred the view with just the Baader filter.  I was able to catch glimpses of the NPC and Mare Sirenum.