Observing Report 08/27/03
Equipment: Heep ('umble 4.5" DS Newtonian on EQ mount, 900mm, f/8), 16x50 bino's
Eyepeices: 20mm, 10mm, 6.7mm Meade Plossls
Location: Newmarket, Ont. (approx. 44n, 79w)
Time: 0200 - 0400 UT
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I can never get over how two seemingly identical nights can be so different at the eyepeice. Tuesday night was like trying to see through the bottom of a well. But last night, Martian features just jumped right out at me ... and for the first time, I found features I could identify. I saw a feature known to me only as "the long bent finger with a booger on the end of it" (perhaps due to having recently been inserted into the Sinus Cavity), which I actually remembered from a diagram in a children's book on the solar system - the very book that inspired my ambition to one day see the planets through a telescope about 35 years ago. Using my Mars Previewer software, I was able to later identify the feature as Sinus Sabaeus and Sinus Meridiani.
Another first: I was able to spot features on Mars (other than the SPC) that were not the usual dull grey. I noticed a bright, white, round region just northeast of the SPC, and a smaller white spot northwest of it. These turned out to be Hellas and Argyre I, respectively. Mare Erythraeum was quite prominent, and a small, thin brown region running west to north almost from the equator to the pole was also present. Mars Previewer couldn't identify it. It could have been Mare Acidialium, but wasn't the right shape or position. Maybe a dust storm? Beats me.
That has to be the best view I've had of Mars.
Clear nights ... dark sites,
Darren
Equipment: Heep ('umble 4.5" DS Newtonian on EQ mount, 900mm, f/8), 16x50 bino's
Eyepeices: 20mm, 10mm, 6.7mm Meade Plossls
Location: Newmarket, Ont. (approx. 44n, 79w)
Time: 0200 - 0400 UT
=======================================================
I can never get over how two seemingly identical nights can be so different at the eyepeice. Tuesday night was like trying to see through the bottom of a well. But last night, Martian features just jumped right out at me ... and for the first time, I found features I could identify. I saw a feature known to me only as "the long bent finger with a booger on the end of it" (perhaps due to having recently been inserted into the Sinus Cavity), which I actually remembered from a diagram in a children's book on the solar system - the very book that inspired my ambition to one day see the planets through a telescope about 35 years ago. Using my Mars Previewer software, I was able to later identify the feature as Sinus Sabaeus and Sinus Meridiani.
Another first: I was able to spot features on Mars (other than the SPC) that were not the usual dull grey. I noticed a bright, white, round region just northeast of the SPC, and a smaller white spot northwest of it. These turned out to be Hellas and Argyre I, respectively. Mare Erythraeum was quite prominent, and a small, thin brown region running west to north almost from the equator to the pole was also present. Mars Previewer couldn't identify it. It could have been Mare Acidialium, but wasn't the right shape or position. Maybe a dust storm? Beats me.
That has to be the best view I've had of Mars.
Clear nights ... dark sites,
Darren
