Mars: 20th March

[Qualia]

We may sometimes complain about our own weather and become rather blasé about its intriguing diversity but viewing meteorological changes on other planets is a captivating experience.

While on Earth we have approached mellow spring and autumn in the northern and southern hemispheres respectively, summer and winter are already well underway on Mars. It might be tempting to think those Martians seasons are similar to those we are experiencing at the moment but they are soundlessly incompatible to our own. 

The summer lands in the north are fluctuating between 0 °C and -60 °C whilst the winter pole in the south is probably dropping to as much as -150 °C with gales as fast 100km an hour hurtling over the barren lands. Putting this into some perspective, even the coldest recorded temperatures on our own poles have been around - 60 °C.

Through the Eyepiece

Looking to the north on Mars, I found the Northern Polar Cap (NPC) but it wasn’t as easy as it sounds. Due to being summer the NPC is rapidly being sublimated whereby the frozen dry ice is vapourised into gas. This melting process may make it quite tricky to see the Northern Pole but I imagine with a little careful attention, good seeing and perhaps a 5” or more, you should be able to see a smallish oval shape shining white.  

A little to the west of this  there appeared a bright patch of ghostly light which I took to be Mars’ own evening cloud, and curious mix of frozen water and carbon dioxide crystals. Moving easterly the dark patch of the Utopia lands were easily visible as was a thin, dark band later identified as Protonilus, an area of cliffs and wide valleys.

Moving to the south Syrtis Major stood out like the continent of Africa, its albedo features clearly identified against the butterscotch backdrop of the windswept plains of Elysium and Arabia.

Bordered by the countless shades and hues of the seas of Tyrrhenum and Serpentis, Hellus’ coat of dry ice shone like snow in sunlight. Mars’ biggest impact crater measures some 2,300 km wide and 7 km deep, an unforgiving landscape of ice, the frost of condensed carbon dioxide, roaring gales and temperatures dropping to as low as - 150 °C at night.  

Mars is making for exciting times.

[Pig]

Nice write up qualia and it does kind of make you realise just how bad things could be but for some very minor changes. However, as erratic as it sounds on Mars It will take some pretty harsh conditions to be as inhospitable as Northampton 

PS.  As usual some lovely drawings too,  I so wish I could draw.

[Qualia]

Thanks for the funny post, Shaun. That bit about Northampton made me chuckle But, yes, you're right. It is amazing to think that with a few changes here and there, Earth could be as barren and dead as Venus or Mars. 

If I recall correctly this was a deep philosophical problem for Kepler. He understood that everything was so finely tuned on Earth to promote all kinds of existence that he asked himself, how could this place not have been made for us? And looking for a purely physical reason, he never found an answer because, I guess, there isn’t one.

Oh and Shaun, there really is no art or technique required in shading a few pastel patches on a circular disk. Seriously mate, everyone here, yourself included can sketch. Unless we're talking hardcore artist technique and training with Lunar sketches, the hardest thing is the observing, not the pencil smudges on paper .

Would love to get an idea of what you see in the 60mm Lunt for example. Be great to get the jist for I think photos - well, those of dark night objects, can often be very misleading.

[jetstream]

Great sketch Rob!

I wish I could draw too...

[Naemeth]

Great sketch Rob, it's pretty much exactly what I saw last night Mars-gazing. At times the little red planet looked very much like this:

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/211595-mars-1803-from-bembridge/

Truly photographic - all that with a 80mm ~F/11.4 refractor, at about 200x. One thing I noticed is that Mars requires patience, it took 40-50 minutes before I got my best view (that only lasted a second), but it was worth it. FWIW I stayed out about an hour and a half gazing at it before going to bed. Very glad I got a chair .

[Qualia]

Wow, Naemeth, sharp eyes, seeing and optics that night The nice thing with Snakey's photo is that it really helps confirm what waas tweaked from the red planet. I wasn't totally convinced I saw the cloud within the Isidis region, for example, until I saw the image. I agree that planets take time. If I'm on a planet session I probably do nothing else but sit with the gem the entire evening. With the 5mm BGO in the eyepiece one really does get the taste of Mars zipping through the darkness of space at some 86,000km an hour, so it's good to sit down for a while and enjoy the ride

[Naemeth]

Wow, Naemeth, sharp eyes, seeing and optics that night The nice thing with Snakey's photo is that it really helps confirm what waas tweaked from the red planet. I wasn't totally convinced I saw the cloud within the Isidis region, for example, until I saw the image. I agree that planets take time. If I'm on a planet session I probably do nothing else but sit with the gem the entire evening. With the 5mm BGO in the eyepiece one really does get the taste of Mars zipping through the darkness of space at some 86,000km an hour, so it's good to sit down for a while and enjoy the ride

I think being seated made the difference, it was only when the scope was completely cooled that I began to see more detail - and even then it was fleeting - which suggests the seeing didn't quite support 2.5x per mm, but then it rarely does . I seemed to see more the longer I looked too - practise makes perfect I guess .

Having seen Jupiter through a TEC 140 though it's very difficult not to want one, I've never seen the GRS before then and I've never seen the cloud bands defined so well. There is something special about refractors.

[cotterless45]

Mars is very impressive and well worth sitting down and spending a little time on. As can be seen by the superb results above.

Why on earth anyone would want to go there ( and back !) is quite beyond me.

Nick.

[AlexB67]

Mars is very impressive and well worth sitting down and spending a little time on. As can be seen by the superb results above.

Why on earth anyone would want to go there ( and back !) is quite beyond me.

Nick.

The only reason I can think of  is what it would be like to see earth through a scope and see what that is like, it must be an amazing planet to see from afar  . yeah been there on TV but it is not the same experiencing it.

[SnakeyJ]

Great sketch and wonderful narrative again Qualia - I was wondering how much detail you could resolve on Mars from the EP at these low elevations.

[Qualia]

Relatively speaking, Jake the observing site isn't that low. It's quite high ground here and the mountains are at the doorstep. On average, planetary observing is done at about 200m above sea level, something like West Scotland with a little less rain .

[JulianFR]

Great sketch. I'm struggling to see any detail at all on Mars at the moment! Apologies if I missed it but what equipment and magnification were you using?

Julian

[Qualia]

Hiya, Julian and thank you for the kind message.

I'm using a 10" f5 truss dob, handmade by SGL's very own Moonshane. The mirrors are Skywatcher's and probably around 1/4 wave. I leave the scope out to cool and when viewing keep the primary mirror's fan on at all times. For planetary viewing at high magnifications I only use Baader Genuine Orthos and for Mars, typically the 6mm or 5mm. I feel that on occassion I could up the power but I don't own a 4mm or Barlow.

Mars is typically a tricky planet to view and I find it a lot more variable than Jupiter or Saturn. To gauge my seeing for the evening, I'll turn to Saturn first and if I can make out the Cassini Division with ease, if the gaseous planet is sharp against the dark background and some of its moons are clearly visible, I'll approach Mars with a lot more confidence. On nights of poor seeing, if Saturn is kind of smudge in the eyepiece, of if Mars shimmers I'll only look at the pnaets to say hello and then go on to split doubles, visit clusters, the Moon, or what have you.

Hope this helped a little

[nightfisher]

Nice work Rob

[JulianFR]

That's great background and advice ... Thanks. Always helpful to know how experienced astronomers get the most from their observing sessions. And top-class equipment obviously helps as well.

[Qualia]

Always helpful to know how experienced astronomers get the most from their observing sessions. And top-class equipment obviously helps as well.

Aye, you're right Julian but in terms of gear, I reckon your 12" f/5 will perform equally to my own 10" f/5, after all, the mirror quality will be essentially the same, albeit yours a tad bigger . I'm not sure how the BSTs or William Optic perform on planetary work. I use Orthos mainly because they offer me a sharp, crisp, contrasty view at a very reasonable price. There is minimum scatter and no ghosting or annoying flares. The TV plossls work on an equal footing and I find the 8mm at 156x the best eyepiece I have for viewing Jupiter. The downside of Orthos is obviously their limited field of view (a mute issue for me when viewing planets) and tight eye-relief.

Other than that, I think planetary viewing is more about a frame of mind than anything else. If I'm feeling jumpy or nervous the session is usually a disaster. You've got to to sit with the planet for quite sometime. At least a peaceful thirty minutes or so, waiting for those moments of great clarity and seeing. It is quite a concentrated activity, a practice of attentive sitting whereby one is asking themselves questions about what they are seeing whilst drawing upon previous knowledge and understanding.  Overtime, you come to notice more and more detail from the given object.

Of course, planetary viewing is seeing dependent, so you cannot expect a good night every night. But on those good nights, once I feel settled and have covered some of the questions I wanted from the given planet and by now have the sharpest, clearest image at the highest magnification, I will pick up a pencil, or cloth and begin to sketch or chalk-smear what I am looking at. This, in itself, is another practice in frustration but then that's another story .

[stevend]

Other than that, I think planetary viewing is more about a frame of mind than anything else. If I'm feeling jumpy or nervous the session is usually a disaster. You've got to to sit with the planet for quite sometime. At least a peaceful thirty minutes or so, waiting for those moments of great clarity and seeing. It is quite a concentrated activity, a practice of attentive sitting whereby one is asking themselves questions about what they are seeing whilst drawing upon previous knowledge and understanding.  Overtime, you come to notice more and more detail from the given object.

Of course, planetary viewing is seeing dependent, so you cannot expect a good night every night. But on those good nights, once I feel settled and have covered some of the questions I wanted from the given planet and by now have the sharpest, clearest image at the highest magnification, I will pick up a pencil, or cloth and begin to sketch or chalk-smear what I am looking at. This, in itself, is another practice in frustration but then that's another story .

Someone put this ^ in a manual on how to look at planets.

I went out last night after emptying the (rubbish) bins and noticed that the sky was suddenly 'proper' dark (you know I mean) and clear, with Mars shining seemingly brighter because of the contrast. So I quickly rushed to setup the scope for a quickie.... and was still there two hours later. Straight away I could use 188x magnification and though I would sometimes back and fro with 125x as a check on conditions, most of the time I was at 188x.

Now repeating Qualia... every now and then conditions would improve or degrade just a tiny bit, plus I started to adjust to viewing and then I could pick out little things. I said to my wife it was like looking at an orange moon to try to explain the view, but then she would look and say, it is just an orange disc (heathen ! ). Over the next couple of hours I would see things as shadows or darker and lighter areas, sometimes they seemed quite prominent, and then they would disappear. I took little breaks as I was finding too long at the EP a little tiring on my eyes but by the time I went I packed up I knew I had seen a planet and some features rather than 'just an orange disc'.

As I think someone on here once said; 'Mars is a tricky little [removed word]', you really have to work for your rewards. So after an impromptu session I went to bed a happier man who had definitely earned his views.

[chiltonstar]

Mars is indeed a "tricky little something or other"....

I got my vintage (well it's 30 years old) 4" f12 frac out last night to have a look as the night was clear and the seeing looked good. Fantastic views of Mars, with a lot of detail. You do have to persevere though, for those moments of good seeing. It was the first time I'd used the scope since I'd dismantled the achromat, cleaned it up with solvent in my ultrasonic bath, and re-assembled it, so I was keen to see how it would perform compared with my other scopes. It still gives the stunning contrast it always gave, fortunately, although the detail this apparition is quite a bit less than in some of the good years.

Chris

[JulianFR]

I was out too with my 12" Dob and got a very clear, decent-sized orange/white disc using my 6mm WO and a 5mm SW SWA I'm borrowing to try out on approval. BUT I still can't resolve any detail :-O

Now, I assume that my equipment is average at least, so I SHOULD be able to make out some detail. So I think that really supports what you are all saying here ... That I need to spend a lot more time actually looking through the eyepiece than I am doing. I should have started last night but I was running out of time.

It's a bit like 'Zen and the art of planetary observing' ... I think there is a book in that somewhere ;-)

[JulianFR]

Quick question... What about filters? Do they help, and if so what are the recommended colours for Mars? I guess different colours will show up different features.

[JulianFR]

Oh, and I've yet to see Jupiter's Great Red Spot as well !

[Qualia]

Quick question... What about filters? Do they help, and if so what are the recommended colours for Mars? I guess different colours will show up different features.

Don't tend to use filters on Mars, Julian. I think some folk say a Wratten 25 or 23A are the best for increasing the contrast of dark albedo markings, whilst a W58 or W64 might be the way to go if wanting to tweak out surface fog or haze. It might be an idea to see if you have a red plastic sweet wrapper lying about and see if this works. Seriously, on Mars it might work just as well as a dedicated filter .