Posts Made By: Bruce Housey

In addition to the points above, it's also important to remember than larger scopes in general require longer cooldown. For instance, an 8" SCT takes a while to cool down, but so does an 8" refractor! :^)

If I know ahead of time I will be observing at night, I just put the SCT out before dinner and it's all ready later. For last minute observing, I grab the small refractor (or lately the small Newt).

I guess some more info would help.... :^O

This was taken a few minutes before 9:00 Central time, and is Callisto (not the shadow). It surprised me so much that I went inside and checked my planetarium program.

Well, thanks, Scott. If that really is the case, there's probably a good reason for it. The first thing that comes to mind is seeing; sometimes you have to get out a few nights before a night which supports detailed views of planets, particularly if you live in areas where the jet stream passes over you.

Also, the TeleVue 102 is a great instrument, but at 4 inches your eyes must get used to picking out the detail. The accounts of Ron Bee on these forums is a great example of what can be done with that instrument with patience.

Finally, check your local conditions. If you're looking over a hot rooftop, for example, you might have a tough time making out the two equatorial bands! A couple of times, my neighbor's hot water heater has come on and the exhaust pipe on his roof was in my path, and all of a sudden my seeing is horrible.

Anyway, have fun with your 102; even if you end up with "aperture fever", a lot of people say they always keep the 4" apo as a companion to the bigger scope (and probably as the final scope after the aperture fever heals).

Bruce.

You're welcome, Sol!

I think we need to arrange a "tag team" though, as waking up at 4:00 is tough, especially more than one day in a row.

Sorry to hear about your bad luck with the weather. We've all been there and feel your pain... staying up until 3:00 and then getting clouded out is just not fair!

Bruce.

Hi, Ron. Although not exactly a planetary feature, the shadow of the globe onto the rings does change position through each opposition. For example, the shadow will be on the "left" before opposition, directly above at opposition, and move "right" after opposition (of course, "left" "right" and "above" depend on orientation in your eyepiece).

Other than that, it is fun to try to identify the moons.

I did see it _right_ next to Callisto on friday night... at lower powers it was hard to tell which was the moon and which was the star! Higher powers clearly showed Callisto's disk.

I had gone out to catch the GRS transit... also took a picture (attached).

Bruce.

I enjoyed your report, Ron. I really have to get back to sketching; the camera has made me too lazy as I can set up camera and take a picture in only about 10 minutes, but a decent sketch always took me at least 20 minutes and a lot of concentration. But I want to get the most out of Mars this great opposition, so I have to set up some templates like you did and start sketching.

I have noticed Hellas being less pronounced as well. At first I thought it was because it was near the limb, but on another morning it was near the center and still dim. Could it be that there are usually clouds or frost there that make it white? And that recently these are just not there?

Bruce.

Obsession: not being able to go to sleep unless the alarm clock is set for 2am because you might miss a clear night.

You're not alone, Paul! :^)

Great drawing, Sol. Here's an image I took about an hour later (about same time in each time zone, but in different time zones). You captured the mottling I saw better than my picture did.

My notes from this morning follow:

With an almost-full moon just 8 degrees away from Mars this morning, moonlight was flooding into the tube testing my baffling job to the max! Looking into the tube the flocking paper in the first 14 inches gobbled up the unwanted light well, and the rough black paint in the remainder of the 5 foot long tube soaked up the rest. I was glad to see no real difference in the view of Mars with the moon so nearby, and the detail on Mare Sirenum and Cimmerium was fabulous.

I also noticed a lot more "mottled" area near the south polar region than my last viewing session 3 days ago, in what appears to be the Mare Chronium or possibly even Mare Australe regions. The attached picture shows this area as somewhat dark, but does not show the mottling visible to the eye during excellent seeing moments. The Elysium area in the north (white spot at bottom on simulation) was also very clear this morning, along with the two dark blotches on the sides of it. The morning limb (right) showed as a beautiful bright white arc... I will be curious to see how morning appears after Aug 27th when the terminator starts creeping in from that side.

The blue cloud over the northern polar region (NPR hood?) still seems about the same size as three days ago, while the south polar cap (top) had a large notch in it. I saw no signs of dust storms whatsoever. Conditions were fabulous for my two-hour viewing session from 2am to 4am: calm, not a cloud in the sky, and actually a little cool at 75 degrees. Mars was high up at around 45 degrees for the whole session.

Angel:

I've wondered the same thing... even more I've wondered why I _don't_ have it! Even though I balance colors to get the southern polar cap white, the limb haze appears white in my pictures. But then it also appears white to my eyes through the eyepiece... I wonder if it has something to do with the optics I'm using; for instance, the TeleVue 2x barlow?

Fabulous picture, by the way!

Bruce.