Sleepless in.....

[Saganite]

Awake at 2 am hot and irritable I descended to our patio intent on sleeping outside. The air was very still, blissfully cool ,and the Curry plant was spreading its delicious aroma .  The half Moon was at about 30 deg in the east and casting its glow so only the brightest stars stood out, but Mars was much higher and beckoning.  I would have loved to put my 5" f15 up for this , but I could not cause any sort of disturbance, so I had to make do with the Tak FC100....

It needed very little time to cool and so was soon showing me a memorable view of the red planet.  Like most of us I have a view in my minds eye of Jupiter that I will never forget, so too Saturn, and in the early hours  of this morning an imprint of Mars made the grade. On this occasion I did not even bother to set up binoviewers but used a Baader 2.25 x barlow and the really excellent Hyperflex 7.2mm  21.5mm zoom, and commenced with 154X power. A beautiful, fairly crisp orange disc with a dark mass, the shape of which seemed to me to be Syrtis Major, and a bright white South polar region. I was quite surprised how sharp and bright the pole was and it made me think of the diamond ring of a solar eclipse. I increased the magnification up to 236x, by steps, and though the pole remained pretty sharp, no more surface detail revealed itself, so I settled for 189x . With just a pair of shorts on, the night air  with its fragrances was blissful on my skin, and a couple hours went by very swiftly. Two satellites across my FOV within 7 minutes of each other ( 3.08 and 3.14 am) and a few 'bumps in the night', the only things to distract me.

By 4.30 am clouds which had been forming now began to hide Mars for brief periods, so I called time on an unexpected, but wonderful observing session.

Edited August 12, 2020 by Saganite

[iPeace]

Thanks for this.

[Highburymark]

Inspiring stuff Steve! Great report of what sounds like a memorable session.
I find it almost impossible to get satisfactory views of the planets in this humid weather. Maybe because I’m in an urban environment, but I’ve also been at darker locations where humidity has made observing very difficult. Maybe waiting until 3-4am is the only answer?

[Saganite]

6 hours ago, iPeace said:

Thanks for this.

Cheers Mike.

I wish I could draw adequately. The views were pretty special and I cannot wait for opposition.

Steve

[Saganite]

4 hours ago, Highburymark said:

Inspiring stuff Steve! Great report of what sounds like a memorable session.
I find it almost impossible to get satisfactory views of the planets in this humid weather. Maybe because I’m in an urban environment, but I’ve also been at darker locations where humidity has made observing very difficult. Maybe waiting until 3-4am is the only answer?

Thanks for the comments Mark, much appreciated.