Mars 10/11 Oct 2020

[markse68]

In the couple of days since I last had a good view, Mars has rotated round a little and now the curved structure, hinted at previously, leading Mare Cimmeria was much more visible. The bright patch above the junction of Mare Cimmeria and Syrtis Minor was very visible and Sinus Gomer was again visible with the 5mm (320x). I think this is a sign the seeing was pretty good and the jetstream was missing me. A bright patch to the left of the N polar region was detected but not really resolved. The hook of subtle dark colour has advanced further round beneath the S pole and resembled a Nike tick almost. The SPC was very faint and if you didn’t know it was there you’d probably miss it! A fab night again for Mars  

Edit: the brightening to left of N polar region may have been Olympus Mons, though it should have been disappearing round the limb by the time i was set up. It was something i noticed first thing and couldn’t detect later in the session though so might have been. Will pay more attention to it tonight, weather permitting

Edited October 11, 2020 by markse68

[globular]

Nice report and sketch.

I’ve been under thick cloud and rain for weeks now and am desperate for some glimpses. 

[markse68]

8 minutes ago, globular said:

Nice report and sketch.

I’ve been under thick cloud and rain for weeks now and am desperate for some glimpses. 

Sorry to hear that Globular- the forecast here wasn’t looking good either but at 11pm I looked out and there were gaps in the cloud so i risked it and glad I did as i had a good 4hrs of pretty clear skies- odd cloud came by to give my eyeballs a rest but great otherwise. I complain about the light pollution down here but I think on the whole the SE does get less cloud and rain, though it’s been awful for most of the time the past few weeks too! Hope your luck improves- it’s so frustrating not to be able to get out I know!