Mars through the night.

[Fraunhoffer]

After some mixed weather, the sky cleared. I had a super time observing mars from 11 right through till 5, with the odd snooze. Just amazing to see to see the planet slowly revolve as the time ticked by.

The see ing was quite good, interupted with a few breezes and hazy cloud from time to time. It got hazy towards 5 so i packed up. 

I swapped between a neodymium filter and a red filter from time to time. The red made the darker areas really dark and outlined. I thought the neodymium allowed slightly more subtle shades to show, even thought it became quite bright.

H2 and HB pencils and orange crayon on paper with a small led clip on reading lamp.

SCT 8 with a 2x barlow and 12mm bst ep. Interestingly i found the Barlow and 12mm have a much better quality image than the 8mm or 5mm bst. 

North is at the top. First sketch at right about 11pm. Rotation left to right.

[mikeDnight]

Excellent sketches with some great detail! 

[markse68]

2 hours ago, Fraunhoffer said:

with a small led clip on reading lamp.

Lovely sketches Fraunhoffer. I too used a cheapo ebay clip-on led reading light last night and it made sketching a whole lot easier! It’s a bendy silicon rubber thing and i just held it to the back of the pad. I was worried the light was too bright but as others have pointed out for planets non-dark-adjusted vision seems to help bring out the detail so possibly a good thing! My only worry now is that it lights me up like a beacon and i lose my incognito cover of darkness out on the common i use for viewing 😬

Mark

[Stu]

Lovely sketches indeed! Very nicely done.

I’m near London too ( to the west) and was observing from 10.30 until 2.30am so suspect we had similar views. Wish I could have stayed up to see Syrtis Major more centrally like you did but at least I  saw it well onto the disk.

As you say, being able to watch the planet slowly rotate over a period of some hours is quite amazing, and makes the tiredness the follow day well worthwhile.

[dweller25]

Brilliant sequence of drawings - well done for staying up 👍

[F15Rules]

Lovely sketching Fraunhofer!

I admire not only your drawing  skills but your staying power for a 6 hour marathon session👍😊

Dave