Mars 19th Sep- Valles Marineris?

[markse68]

So having bemoaned the lack of clarity on Mars lately and seeking a magic bullet filter to rectify this, the atmospherics parted and revealed a wonderful amount of detail on the red planet tonight. I spent a good few hours on Mars alone tonight, trying out various eps and filters and my ADC settings. Starting at about 11pm I think, the adc was very much needed but the clarity and steadiness of the atmosphere here were immediately obvious. I started as usual with the baader neodymium filter and kept with that mostly but also tried the mars b and no filters. I’m starting to think that seeing is all and the filters don’t really add much at all really! though the neo did noticeably dim the diffraction spikes and darken the background a bit. I could have/ should have stayed much longer the view was so good! By 2am Mars was at its highest or close to and the adc wasn’t really needed further so out it came. I abandoned the neo too and I think the final views with naked ep (7mm i think- 230x) were ultimately the best.

I don’t know if I really saw it but there were 2 thin dark fingers protruding from the main southern dark region and looking at SS, could the lower one (dob view)  be Valles Marineris?  That would be very cool as it has to be the most intriguing feature on the planet- visually at least- a huge series of canyons that look like an excavation or crash landing site from something really huge!

Mark

 

Edited September 20, 2020 by markse68

[cotterless45]

Looks bang on target . Great to a drawing of what's in the eyepiece , well caught !

Nick.

[Pixies]

Hi. Yep, I was seeing those 2 dark fingers two nights ago. The image from Skysafari isn't the best to compare with visuals. Best have a look in the imaging section to see what those guys have been putting up.

[Pixies]

This is what I saw:

[markse68]

16 minutes ago, Pixies said:

This is what I saw:

Very nice sketch pixies. Interesting also was a light patch at the North pole maybe cloud as i don’t think it has ice?

[Pixies]

have a look at this fab image:

You can see the 'fingers' as described.

You can also see the pale shades along the N-NE limb (well -I think it's NE). I've seen it mentioned that this is a Martian morning 'mist'

Edited September 20, 2020 by Pixies

[markse68]

24 minutes ago, Pixies said:

have a look at this fab image:

You can see the 'fingers' as described.

You can also see the pale shades along the N-NE limb (well -I think it's NE). I've seen it mentioned that this is a Martian morning 'mist'

Yes it looks quite blue in that image down there- the north is in winter so i guess the north polar ice cap is growing as the south shrinks and there’ll be lots of clouds/condensing gasses down there in the ferocious winter cold. Incredible amount of detail in that image!

[markse68]

Last night, between light un-forecast cloudage I was blessed with what i suspect was “perfect” seeing- at least the features were so etched that I don’t suppose my scope could resolve any more. Stunning it was. Now I could see a dark hook coming up from the N polar region- the pole itself a bluish bright cloudy region, and where there was a notch the night previous, now I could resolve a tadpole shaped island beneath the main dark region. At times the main dark region seemed to extend up to the S pole although there was still a distinct main dark area. The sketch was done after the event from memory so not really to scale and maybe a little exaggerated! 

Mark

[Peter Drew]

I think I can confirm that observation in general.  I was using a SW 150ED piggy backed on a 16" SCT and the views were very similar to your sketch.  Still unable to get a night with good transparency and steady seeing, last night was the best so far this apparition but the image was still shimmering annoyingly.  I found the ADC to offer an improvement but not a game changer.  The detail was similar in both telescopes but different in presentation.  The ED gave stronger contrast but the smaller exit pupil at around the same 250x made the image more difficult to see, in better conditions the 16" should do a little better.  Nice to have both for the comparison. On that tack, when observing Mars with my C8SE in Tenerife I can routinely use 400x with good results due to the planets higher altitude and the better seeing conditions.    🙂

[markse68]

2 minutes ago, Peter Drew said:

I found the ADC to offer an improvement but not a game changer. 

Hi Peter, I didn’t get out till after midnight and didn’t bother with the adc this time- Mars was pretty high and the colour smear was already minimal and acceptable. It’s a shame the other planets don’t follow Mars trajectory! No filters required either last night. Glad you got a night of better seeing too!

Mark

[Peter Drew]

2 minutes ago, markse68 said:

Hi Peter, I didn’t get out till after midnight and didn’t bother with the adc this time- Mars was pretty high and the colour smear was already minimal and acceptable. It’s a shame the other planets don’t follow Mars trajectory! No filters required either last night. Glad you got a night of better seeing too!

Mark

I was out from 10pm until midnight so the ADC was more effective early on.  I wish I could have stayed out longer as the image was gradually improving but I have a chronic chest condition that gives me a narrow exposure window at night.

[markse68]

Sorry to hear that Peter

Take care

Mark