Was I seeing Phobos?

[marcosscriven]

As I saw Mars for the first time tonight, I noticed a point to the left of it that stayed there as I tracked.

Would that be the correct location for it at the moment?

[marcosscriven]

Actually, just checking Red Shift on the iPhone, I swear the current position of Deimos is what I saw.

As I say, only visibile with averted gaze, but still.

Should that even be possible with a 72mm refractor (WO Megrez with 2-4mm Televue Nagler), or am I imagining things?

[John]

The moons of Mars need at least a 10" aperture scope and possible more to spot. They are tiny and faint, and made more difficult by the glare from Mars.

People have tried, and failed, to see them with 20" scopes so they are really challenging objects.

What you saw was either a background star or possibly some "ghosting" in the eyepiece I think.

[marcosscriven]

Ah - I see what you mean. Was just getting a bit overexcited on my first attempt!

[kenmyers]

I thought I saw it myself not too long ago, it turned out my eyepiece has imperfections lol

[marcosscriven]

Presumably a quick way to check that is to rotate the eyepiece, and see if the 'moon' rotates with it?

[Macavity]

Might give it a go with m'Video Imaging? Phobos is supposed to be about mag +12? I can usually pick up fainter (Mag +10-12) Saturnian satellites. I suspect it wise to check, in advance, where Phobos is, in relation to Mars. The latter will certainly be *considerably* "burned out" in any such image...

[lukebl]

I'm still hoping to capture one of these. The magnitude of them isn't the problem, just the proximity to the glare of the planet. Phobos, particularly, is so close the planet that it's likely to be completely overwhelmed by the glare, with a maximum elongation no more than the diameter of the planet. I guess the best way is to have some sort of occulting bar to blank out Mars, and time it carefully (Phobos orbits in less than 8 hours, Diemos about 30)

[Rihard]

As I saw Mars for the first time tonight, I noticed a point to the left of it that stayed there as I tracked.

Would that be the correct location for it at the moment?

You know, I attempted to take pictures of Mars with a Sigma tele zoom and DSLR (300 MM, some 60 mm aperture if I'm not wrong) and I swear I would see something like that on the side of Mars, but that wouldn't appear in any of the images anyway, so that was probably some kind of optical artifact