MARS Reaches Two Milestones on Wednesday

[paulastro]

On Wednesday morning, Mars will be mag -2 and 20.1 arc seconds.  Both notable landmarks of this apparition.    Opposition  is 30 days away, and closest approach 34 days.  MCM longitude is 11 degrees at around 3 am. There would be lots of good features to see – if the dust storm wasn’t obscuring the view! 

 

Well worth keeping an eye on though as the storm could cease at any time.

 

The good news is that Mars will be at least as big and bright as it is now until September 5th when it will still be 20.1 arc seconds and just a tad fainter at mag –1.9.

 

Plenty of time for the dust to settle! 

[groberts]

Thanks that's interesting. 

I'm more DSO than planetary but the current views of Mars are amazing.  Is this brightness of Mars  unusual?  I did image Mars a few years ago and it was much less mag. than now.

Graham

   

[paulastro]

It's the brightest Mars has been since 2003, and 2003 was the best it had been for 60,000 years!  It looks just beautiful with the naked eye and very impressive doesn't it.

[Fozzie]

32 minutes ago, paulastro said:

It's the brightest Mars has been since 2003, and 2003 was the best it had been for 60,000 years!  It looks just beautiful with the naked eye and very impressive doesn't it.

Amazing site, I've seen it 4 times now in the last month, twice observing and twice mk1 Eyeball.. since the start of the month she's really brightened.. Becomes visiable from my garden around 01:00 currently, looking forward to getting it a bit earlier so I can have some serious scope time..

Fantastic view in the early morning sky.

[paulastro]

I agree with you Fozzie.  Even though features are currently obscured by the dust storm, it's well worth observing in a telescope.  As you say, the disc is an impressive size for Mar and you never know when the dust storm will start to ease and some features start to show through the haze.  Well worth keeping an eye on.

[Pullock]

Would the dust storm explain when I had a look the other night it just looked half red and half glowing bright red/orange and washed out any features? If so, I know it's not me! 

[paulastro]

Pullock, what you described could be atmospheric affects when the planet is low down, or poor seeing or a mixture of both.

If you use a magnification of around x150 or more if possible and carefully focus,  you should get a reasonably sharp edge to the planet  - though it will be a wobbly image that goes in and out of focus and flashes different colours  in poor seeing.  I observed myself in the early hours and I had a sharp disk in better seeing moments, and it was a rather bland looking sandy colour.  Compared with Mars without a dust storm it looks like it has a pale orange wash painted on to it.   It did look as if there were a few albedo areas showing through the dust, but they looked very muted and difficult to see - without a dust storm they are very obvious.  I also thought I saw the S polar cap in the odd better moment which again is usually very easy.

At opposition Mars has an extremely bright surface brightness and you need to have the magnification enough so that it cuts the glare down, otherwise it will be too bright to see much at all.  Sometimes you will be lucky if you can uses much more than x200 to atmospheric disturbance, but if the seeing is good Mars repays higher powers.  If you use too low powers it will be difficult to see much as I've said.- a mistake often made by people not experienced observing Mars.

Though the dust storm is still going on, there are signs things may be improving, and Mars still looks beautiful if the seeing allows a reasonable magnification.  It's also better the higher it is above the horizon - from around 2am onwards until dawn is a good time at the moment.

[Pullock]

Thanks for the detailed explanation, it sounds like I also wasn't using high enough magnification, I'll try and get to view it in into the early hours and hopefully in better seeing conditions. It doesn't help that once it rises and I can get eyes on, it's only visible for 15-20 mins before it disappears behind trees and houses, then it's roughly a 3 hour wait for it to come out the other side but I'll see what I can do.

[paulastro]

Good idea, best of luck.  Good seeing this morning, could use up to around x245 with my binoviewer.  A nice sharp edge to the planet, but rather frustrating that it looks so bland because of the dust.  Let's hope it clears soon and we'll be able to have some fine views.