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Best Mars for me


jason.p

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After several nights of disappointing views, tonight I got the best detail so far.

The white "cap" was quite prominent, and several dark areas. This was at x200, and at 9.45 so no moon to interfere.

I'm pretty sure I got the GRS as well, but got out too late to spend much time on it.

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Makes a nice change. I had almost written off Mars as a seething orange blob of disappointment.

Then suddenly I start to notice details! No sign of polar caps yet, I do have a new 200x eyepiece on order which hopefully will do the job (Vixen SLV 6mm). :)

It is true. The more you look the mo that you see.

Paul

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Superb here tonight despite (or possibly because of ?) viewing though thin cloud layer.

There are two distinct light patches on the disk. The larger one is not a polar cap but a feature called Hellas which may be frost filled at the present time, hence it's very pale colouring. The smaller white patch, on the opposite side of the planet to Hellas, is actually the northern polar cap.

Anyway the views with my 12" dob at 257x and 318x were really memorable tonight for around 45 minutes, until the cloud layer thickened up and Mars could no longer be seen peeking through it.

I was using a Vixen SLV 6mm for some of the time as well. Great little eyepiece  :smiley:

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I was impressed by the seeing yesterday too, the moon was low and out of the way early on, and the "milky sheen" across the sky for the last few

days had dishappeared with it, The sky was of an average transparency but pretty steady and this gave me reasonably sharp sights of Hellas, with

syrtis Major to the left hand side and the North Polar cap below the rumour of Utopia (not much of this seen).

There appeared to be two bright yellow patches, one in the Aerta and one over in the Eden Regions either side of the Arabia plains...clouds? Local dust storms?

My tired eyes? 

I must say Hellas looked very bright, and more white than I have seen it before. Again this could just be me.

I followed this with some good looks at Jupiter and the GRS, a peek at Saturn below the moon ( from the upper bedroom window with my little refractor over the rooftops to the SE) and then put plenty of mag on the minor planet Ceres, and Big Rocks Vesta and Pallas.

All in all Mars and co lifted my spirits......pity about the cloud tonight, I'm off tomorrow and it would be good to get some real mag on Saturn.

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Cracking clear skies tonight and I certainly got my best view of Mars yet and was able to see a clean round disc and some detail on the planet. Like others it had hitherto been a blurry red mess. Much joy :)

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Pretty nice steady seeing here for an hour or two until it got a bit cloudy. Got some lovely views of Mars using my Skylight 100mm f13 - push the mag to 325x and still could make out some details. A bit steadier at 260x (with a 5mm BGO). I could make out some really subtle colours too, even in the paler ochre areas.

Decided to play about with my webcam too :). This is captured from c. 200 frames at f32.5 - it's the first image of Mars I've made that actually looks like a planet and not a bright blob!

post-20607-0-40766800-1397779133.png

Supposed to be in colour though... .

Interestingly, this doesn't really represent the subtle shadings and clearer differences in the dark and light areas (and the polar cap) that I could see visually.

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Superb Mars. High thin cloud to begin with gave intermittent seeing. Then at near it's peak some lovely clarity,post-6974-0-18304300-1397799204_thumb.jp

Then onto Saturn, low, but enough to get Cassini.

Lovely evening accompanied by a hedgehog snuffling around. Hoping for more

Clear nights, Nick.

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I tried around 10 pm and then at 3.00am and found the seeing poor both times - perhaps I missed the best bit in between!

Looked at other things instead including the large as PANSTAARS comet and Vesta and Ceres

It's at its highest just after Midnight currently so worth a try then

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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I tried around 10 pm and then at 3.00am and found the seeing poor both times - perhaps I missed the best bit in between!

Looked at other things instead including the large as PANSTAARS comet and Vesta and Ceres

My earlier post should say - 'LATEST" Panstaars comet btw!

It's at its highest just after Midnight currently so worth a try then

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yes - I should have stayed up but needed my kip!

I have been spoiled with some excellent views of Mars recently and so feel a bit miffed when the seeing is average or poor!

Better luck tonight.

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It's nothing at all like 2 years ago at the last super opposition ,post-6974-0-93431200-1397808908_thumb.jp

Us seniors can doze at various times of the day, however research has shown that sleep deprivation can cause changes to DNA.

You might find yourself waking up as George Cloony,

Nick.

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LOL  - stuck at work today, so thanks for the laugh :)

I found the seeing started to deriorate around midnight, I think just before the cloud rolled in here. Not sure how long it lasted though, as it was clear first thing. Hoping to try again tonight, this time with my 150mm f10 (forecast permitting!)

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Us seniors can doze at various times of the day, however research has shown that sleep deprivation can cause changes to DNA.

You might find yourself waking up as George Cloony,

Nick.

Drat, to late  :grin: I will be hoping to get out tonight, have some visitors arriving this afternoon but they should be away for 5 ish. 

I'm hoping the seeing will be as good as a few nights ago, the forecast says it should be similar  :smiley:

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I've just got in from viewing Mars from a friend's back garden.I started at 9.15pm,with Mars just over the roof top,with the seeing gradually improving as the planet climbed higher.I have to say that the sky is really clear tonight.  I could definately make out markings (Syrtis major?).My best views were obtained with an 8mm barlowed ep,used in conjunction with coloured filters.This was an interesting exercise.I tried a red filter,followed by an orange,and finally a yellow filter.Whilst the red filter did enhance the markings that I could see before ,I found that the orange filter worked better for me,as it didn't block out as much light as the red filter.The yellow filter didn't work as well to my eyes.The 8mm barlowed EP gave a magnification of X162 on my 130mm scope.

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I'm not long back indoors having managed a good look at Mars myself tonight (Friday).

Started at 20:50 GMT, using my Celestron C8. Eyepieces 40mm (x50), 25mm (x80) and 9mm (x222). First view was at x80, and had a nice crisp view of Syrtis Major, and at first what I thought was a polar cap, but as others have said this turned out to be the Hellas region. In bits of steadier seeing, I caught glimpses of the North polar cap at x222.

For all the years I've been into astronomy, I never managed to get a good view of Mars near opposition. Shift patterns and bad weather never lined up in my favor. My best shot was probably the 1988 opposition with my old 150mm reflector (x135).

But having recently been getting back into astronomy since Comet Panstarrs last year, I finally found my Celestron tripod and wedge in storage, and tonight was the first time I've used the C8 properly in many a year. And although conditions could have been better (Seeing SIII?), my first good view of our neighbor just had me going WOW! It seemed more impressive than Jupiter, which although is higher in elevation, was being viewed over the houses behind my garden, whereas Mars to the east was along the line of gardens, so steadier seeing? Plus Jupiter is well past opposition.

Flitted between Mars, Jupiter and a few double star observations for the next hour (Castor, Algeiba etc). Really enjoyed making this Martian observation!

Mark

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