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MARS - It's official, the duststorm is CLEARING

paulastro

By paulastro
in Observing - Planetary

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GavStar

GavStar

Posted
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4 minutes ago, Rob said:

Just for reference really... 2018 & 2020 very exciting times!

 

Mars.jpg

2020 does look very good with an altitude of around 44 degrees at opposition from southern UK - significantly higher than this year and Mars still at a good size!

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paulastro

paulastro

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Thanks Rob.  I think 2022 is right up there too, the size might be a bit smaller but having Mars up there in Taurus we should have some fabulous views - as long as we are in the northern hemisphere of course :smile:.

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chiltonstar

chiltonstar

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A very useful table; even in 2014 when the apparent diameter was smaller it was pretty fantastic by eye and imaged, so hopefully (if the dust stays away) this time around and next time around it should be amazing.

Chris

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John

John

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I sketched nice detail on Mars with a 60mm Tasco refractor back in 1984. Mars got to 17 arc seconds in apparent diameter during that opposition but was not all that high in the sky from what I (vaguely) recall.

 

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Rob

Rob

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3 minutes ago, John said:

I sketched nice detail on Mars with a 60mm Tasco refractor back in 1984. Mars got to 17 arc seconds in apparent diameter during that opposition but was not all that high in the sky from what I (vaguely) recall.

 

Thanks John.. that has given me more encouragement with only having the ED70 on the night!. Trust me I'll give it the best go I can.

I'm taking a 4mm TMB II, 6mm TMB I, 8.8mm Meade 5000 UWA and 10mm Meade Ortho. Plus two Barlows - 2 x Shorty Plus Apo & GSO 2.5x Apo

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Stu

Stu

Posted
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14 minutes ago, Rob said:

Thanks John.. that has given me more encouragement with only having the ED70 on the night!. Trust me I'll give it the best go I can.

I'm taking a 4mm TMB II, 6mm TMB I, 8.8mm Meade 5000 UWA and 10mm Meade Ortho. Plus two Barlows - 2 x Shorty Plus Apo & GSO 2.5x Apo

Well worth a go. I recall seeing some detail on mars with my old WO SD66mm, I used a 2.5mm Nagler for x155 at times, worked quite well with good seeing.

EDIT  I don’t think my eyes would cope with it now!!

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Nyctimene

Nyctimene

Posted
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Was out with the 18" Obsession this morning at 02 h CEST. SQM-L 21.0, NELM just 5.0 mag; slight horizon haze. At 205x and 341x mags (with 10 and 6 mmf Orthos), despite rather good seeing, I got still very disappointing views of Mars. A uniform orange disc, small polar cap, and only for fractions of a second, some very faint darker shades visible. An orange filter didn't help. The search for Deimos was fruitless as well. I consoled myself with some globulars - M 15; in Delphinus the very nice 6934 (at 205x resolved down to the core) and the fainter 7006.

Kepler's statement came to my mind: "Mars is the planet, that defies observation" (referring to his difficulties doing the calculations of Mars' orbits)

I'll give Mars another try during the next week; "Hope and Patience win"; at least, I hope to spot Deimos.

Stephan

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BGazing

BGazing

Posted
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7 hours ago, paulastro said:

Good luck to all of you with your 'expeditions'.  I'll look forward to seeing all your positive reports :smile:.

It's getting rather exciting now leading up to next week - or is it just me?  ?

I am trying not to pump myself up, hoping to at least have clear night for the total lunar eclipse...

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RT65CB-SWL

RT65CB-SWL

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I had a peek at Mars on late Wednesday night [18th]/early Thursday morning [19th] with my ETX105. All I saw was a 'plain' orange sphere/disc. Even using my neodymium filter in the optical path failed to produce any surface detail. I stayed up for Saturn to come into view, but it was to low, as it had just cleared the garage roof of the house over the road and rising thermals everywhere.

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paulastro

paulastro

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Up at The Astronomy Centre yesterday evening and Peter showed me some of the latest images posted on Cloudy Nights in the last couple of days.  Far more detail than I've seen since the height of the dust storm, well worth looking at.  Particularly going by the second one the dust seems to be settling quite quickly.  Most encouraging :smile:.

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/626403-mars-and-saturn-20th-july/

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/626496-mars-21-july-2018-1447ut-cm3385/

 

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paulastro

paulastro

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Written by Richard McKim on July 15th.  (BAA Mars Section Director)

The Director inspected the planet visually this morning, and could see the still-dark Olympus Mons near the evening terminator and several albedo anomalies from Claritas through Mare Tyrrhenum. The maximum feature intensity was about 4.5 on the 0-10 scale where 0 is the normal brilliance of the cap, 2 the average brightness of the deserts and 10 the black sky background. His impression was that the NPH was becoming better visible. Images just received from Barry Adcock (Australia) for July 14 show that Sinus Meridiani has finally reappeared, albeit weakly. The SPC remains affected by dust fallout, and has a complex pattern of bright and dark areas. With opposition in less than a fortnight it seems that the major markings will be visible again in time, though they will remain at least another month below their average intensity. Good observing!

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Arion

Arion

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My telescope should arrive on tuesday or wednesday, right in time for the lunar eclipse on thursday with completely clear skies announced for the entire middle and end of the week.

This should be really cool.

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Stub Mandrel

Stub Mandrel

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16 minutes ago, Arion said:

My telescope should arrive on tuesday or wednesday, right in time for the lunar eclipse on thursday with completely clear skies announced for the entire middle and end of the week.

This should be really cool.

Now we know who to blame when it's clouded out ?

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MarsG76

MarsG76

Posted
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2 hours ago, paulastro said:

Well,  what's happened, did you win the lottery last night?  ?

Well If the dust Storm clear than you can say so....

i was beginning to think that dust storm on the last two closest oppositions of mars (2003 & 2018) when amateurs can image some quite good detail is some kind of a conspiracy... what are they afraid that we're going to see? Hahaha

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PaulB

PaulB

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I and members from Macc AS. Will at Teggs Nose on Friday (weather and clear skies permitting) watching the TLC. But also  Mars at opposition. I will have my 4.5inch Altair 115 EDT and IO Mini Tower II Pro. Fingers crossed for a good night.

I noticed the dust storm was finally clearing, which is very good news for Earthbound observers and our two, working, emissaries from Earth.

The list showing the Mars Oppositions is very useful too. It's nice to see the next Mars Opposition in 2020 will have the planet at a decent altitude in UK skies.

Thanks for posting.

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