Mars

[triton1]

Is it just me but I don,t remember ever seeing Mars as bright as it is at the moment.The magnitude is -1.8 and I heard it may go out to -2.2 that,s Venus territory.Maybe somthing to do with the dust storm possibly reflecting more sunlight back?

[JeremyS]

26 minutes ago, triton1 said:

Is it just me but I don,t remember ever seeing Mars as bright as it is at the moment.The magnitude is -1.8 and I heard it may go out to -2.2 that,s Venus territory.Maybe somthing to do with the dust storm possibly reflecting more sunlight back?

It's not the dust making it brighter, Jonn. Have a look at this:

 

 

[Rob]

I've seen a few oppositions in my time.. I just love how bright Mars can actually be. The transition from a small salmon colour dot, to shining beacon that does not look to different to Venus (less the salmon colour) is amazing!.

We are blessed currently with good weather, and it looks to be holding for another month.

Enjoy!

[JPAG]

Speaking on Mars, has the dust storm disappeared? Three days ago I couldn't see almost nothing on the surface of the planet. ☹️

[Spengler]

Was out late last night going through my Messier list, and then swung across to Mars. Was so bright it killed my night vision almost instantly and made me wince in pain it was so bright.

 

Would you suggest trying to add a filter to try and lower the brightness, or just squint when looking?

[John]

17 hours ago, JPAG said:

Speaking on Mars, has the dust storm disappeared? Three days ago I couldn't see almost nothing on the surface of the planet. ☹️

Only vague hints of surface features showing last night with my 5" triplet refractor at 200x and 250x. Lovely large and sharp planetary disk though. Without the dust storm the detail would be mouthwatering I reckon.

[Ags]

I had a long look at Mars last night carefully inspecting the planet vs the prediction on Stellarium. I could not make out a single detail. But it is big!

Also, the problem is not just the dust storm, you also have to consider the polar caps are poorly situated this year.

@Spengler you don't want night vision for planets, you want to use your daytime color vision.

[Peter Drew]

23 minutes ago, Ags said:

I had a long look at Mars last night carefully inspecting the planet vs the prediction on Stellarium. I could not make out a single detail. But it is big!

Also, the problem is not just the dust storm, you also have to consider the polar caps are poorly situated this year.

@Spengler you don't want night vision for planets, you want to use your daytime color vision.

Yes, keep the obs light on for viewing the Moon and planets, it really helps. (unless you're looking for faint planetary moons!)

[Ags]

Going back to the original question, big dust storms do make Mars more reflective, both during the storm and for years after, but I don't know if the difference is apparent visually. It's called the Mars dust cycle: after a dust storm everything is covered in a layer of pale dust including the darker regions of Mars so more energy is reflected to space, cooling the planet. A cooler planet has less energy in the atmosphere, so global dust storms can't happen directly after a previous global dust storm.

Over the years, Mars winds scrub the dark regions clearing away the dust and making them darker. As they get darker they absorb more energy (warming the planet by up to 1°C). Eventually the planet gets warm enough for another huge dust storm, restarting the cycle.

You may recall that a few years ago there was talk of "global warming on Mars" but this was just the temperature variation caused by the dust cycle.

[John]

When Mariner 9 arrived at Mars in November 1971 there was a planet-wide dust storm raging which obscured all surface details even for the spacecraft. I believe that they had to wait until Janurary 1972 before the storm had abated to the point where details such as the tops of the martian volcanos started to appear on images.

[LukeSkywatcher]

I Saw Mars a couple months ago naked eye at about 4am. I couldn't believe how big and bright it was. 

[Paul M]

I see there is some rain in the forecast, that should help settle the dust

We'll be in Gran Canaria around opposition so will get to see the full glory of the brightness and colour away from the gloom of my home horizon. Won't have any optic other than a pair of mk.1 eyeballs and phone camera. So I won't be submitting any scientific papers from my observations on this voyage!

[John]

I'll be in Yorkshire for the opposition so will be able to study Mars bouncing along the horizon

[Geoff Barnes]

... and I will be Downunder straining my neck to look almost vertically at Mars!

[Jeff-Colorado]

I looked at Mars last night in the foothills near Colorado Springs. It was the brightest I can ever remember seeing and the planetary disk was large, but, sadly, there was virtually no detail. Just a slight gradient to white close to the poles.