A wonderful first Mars and Saturn

[Size9Hex]

As always, I hope this report is interesting and/or useful to others.

I set up the 10 inch dob overlooking farmland (for hopefully good seeing conditions) but with a large town a few miles beyond. 250x gave outstanding views (beating 180x but requiring patience to wait for the best glimpses). Comfy chair essential, and self restraint not to keep faffing with the focus. At one point, the seeing on Mars became rubbish, while nearby Saturn was unaffected. Mars improved later, as if it had passed through a plume of heat from town. Interesting. I'm glad I didn't give up on it.

 

Mars

Stunning! Forgive me if the names I'm giving below are wrong; Mars is new to me.

Huge dark feature in the north like the wings of a mishapen butterfly, matching Acidalia Planitia and Chrysae Planitia on the map. Southwest of here another smaller darker region seen around Kasei Valles.

Two prominent east-west parallel dark stripes in the southern hemisphere. The northern stripe matches Sinus Sabaeus and Sinus Meridiani at which it was interupted by a brighter division separating it from the darker Margaritifer Terra. The more subtle southern stripe (Noachis Terra / Mare Serpentis?) appeared to curl north near the western end into Margaritifer Terra. Another dark region (Oxia Palus?) made a thin curl north from here back over the equator towards the butterfly and looked remarkably canal-like!

The polar caps were not seen, although a long thin brighter and somewhat blurred region with much paler colour was seen around the southern rim of the planet. Cloud maybe?

Later, as the planet turned, a thin scratch appeared in the west like an eyelash on the lens. Only glimpsed twice before Mars was lost in the trees, but both views were very consistent. This matches the location/orientation of Valles Marineris. If this is truly what it was, then I'm thrilled!

Overall, the colour of the distant desert world was absolutely beguiling.

 

Saturn

Fabulous views of the rings and the dark Cassini Division. I wondered if the inside edge of the inner ring was fainter, although the impression was subtle; A less sharp boundary and a faint almost grey area.

The planet showed a more intense colour than the paler rings. A darker band just north of the equator. Northern hemisphere darker than southern, and particularly towards the pole, although I wondered if this might be an illusion with the brighter rings passing behind the planet at this point. Simply beautiful.

The light pollution and low altitude was robbing the sky of 3 magnitudes. Titan was just about obvious in averted vision. Rhea was persistent at the corner of the eye but not obvious. Tethys came and went, requiring a map to help place it. Dione was glimpsed a few times; Enough to be sure of it, but still mainly absent. An intriging scene, with the moons scattered like seeds sown by a giant hand. Chaos compared to the predictable straight line order of Jupiter.

 

Esoterica

A couple of oddities on which to briefly rest the eyeball.

Methuselah Star in Libra (HD 140283). The oldest thing I've ever seen I think. http://www.space.com/20112-oldest-known-star-universe.html

18 Scorpii to contemplate looking back at our sun from across the depths of space. http://freestarcharts.com/stars/17-guides/stars/14-18-scorpii-the-nearest-solar-twin

 

The panorama of Saturn, Mars, Jupiter across the sky wasn't bad either, with the Milky Way in Cygnus glowing weakly through the midsummer not-exactly-darkness. I'm a happy telescopist today!

[Special K]

Fabulous, Paul!  Those planets are a nice compliment to each other being different in so many ways. Shame they are so low in the sky but steady seeing has been providing some nice results. I'm hoping to get a look later on...!

[Stu]

Interesting or useful?? I should say so! Great report Paul, really nice to read and very informative. Your observation of Mars puts anything I've achieved this year to shame. Must try harder.

You are obviously getting a lot out of your scope, great stuff!

[laudropb]

Very nice report and certainly very useful

[Pondus]

Hopefully without insulting anyone in here; this is by far the best (Mars)  report I`ve read this year.  What a great read!

I assume Mars is round 17 degrees above Your horizon (?) and it is really Nice to to know that superb views are possible at that altitude. given some patience by the eyepiece.

Mars was definitely my favorite Object spring 2014, unfortunately not so this time around (9 degrees above my horizon).

 

Rune

[cotterless45]

Lovely report, I got the distorted "butterfly" the other night, it's been off and on for seeing here.

Nick.

[Size9Hex]

Thanks for the kind words everyone!

Kevin, hope you got some good views yourself. It was a nice evening here, but two sessions in a row is too much for me in mid summer with having to be awake at work the next day!

Thanks Stu. I'd be mortified feeling like I was putting anyone to shame. Compared to some of my other hobbies I really enjoy the uncompetitive aspects of astronomy. The winner is the person who's enjoying it the most perhaps! :-)

Rune, yep just a whisker above 17 degrees. Getting away from town seems to help with low targets. 9 degrees is super low though. Hopefully we'll all have some good views high in the sky in years to come!

Nick your sketches and reports have certainly whetted the appetite recently. It's a thrill to finally see Mars for real!

[Stu]

48 minutes ago, Size9Hex said:

Thanks Stu. I'd be mortified feeling like I was putting anyone to shame. Compared to some of my other hobbies I really enjoy the uncompetitive aspects of astronomy. The winner is the person who's enjoying it the most perhaps! :-)

No competition implied Paul, but I take inspiration from others reports and use them to improve my own observations. As you say, I enjoy the non competitive nature of observational astronomy. Over the last few years I think we have developed a fabulous group of observers on SGL, from jaded oldies like me ? to the newbies with fresh young eyes. We encourage each other and share experiences without feeling like we are trying to out do each other. It has greatly improved my enjoyment of astronomy since my earlier solo days.

I've always enjoyed your reports, they are very nicely written, detailed and very obviously an accurate representation of what you saw. An excellent example to all of us.