The Martian compass

[Pixies]

Hi all,

North and South are easy. The south polar cap is visible just now, and it appears at the top (rotated to the right slightly) in the view of my reflector.

The planet appears to rotate from right to left> so the martian dawn is on the right-most limb (again - in the rotated reflector view). Is this the Martian East?

If yes, then with the image rotated to the correct (real world) view, the compass would be:

 

   N

E    W

   S

 

Or do we use our own compass imposed upon the view?

 

[markse68]

Mars rotates the same way we do (only venus goes backwards) so it should have sun rising in east and setting in west like us i think- same compass points

[Pixies]

16 minutes ago, markse68 said:

Mars rotates the same way we do (only venus goes backwards) so it should have sun rising in east and setting in west like us i think- same compass points

You're right. I was getting the rotation mixed-up.

[Yawning Angel]

I asked this question elsewhere a while back, and the E-W labels are often replaced with P & F. P for Proceeding and F for Following (This notation is used in WinJUPOS when aligning the axis)

Proceeding is the side heading into darkness, Following is the edge moving into the light

Earth would be:

 N
F  P
 S