Mars dust storm alert

[JeremyS]

https://britastro.org/node/25021

[laudropb]

I am afraid the Earth cloud alert means I have little chance of seeing this Jeremy.

 

[JeremyS]

1 hour ago, laudropb said:

I am afraid the Earth cloud alert means I have little chance of seeing this Jeremy.

 

Same here 🙁

[RobertI]

5 hours ago, JeremyS said:

https://britastro.org/node/25021

Thanks for the heads up Jeremy.  I wonder what instrument he was using. 

[JeremyS]

53 minutes ago, RobertI said:

Thanks for the heads up Jeremy.  I wonder what instrument he was using. 

Hello Rob,

Richard McKim has a 410 mm Dall-Kirkham Cassegrain

more info on the BAA Mars Section blog

[Peter Drew]

Well worth looking at the Mars section blog for a great selection of images and sketches of Mars 2020.     🙂

[RobertI]

2 hours ago, JeremyS said:

more info on the BAA Mars Section blog

1 hour ago, Peter Drew said:

Well worth looking at the Mars section blog for a great selection of images and sketches of Mars 2020.     🙂

The blog is a fascinating read, there are some really dedicated people doing some great work there. I never knew there was so much happening on Mars! 

[John]

At least we were spared a major dust storm at opposition this time around

[Barry-W-Fenner]

I have had very few opportunity's to view Mars of late. (Or observe in general) The planet has shown some excellent detail on most occasions so I guess I am quite lucky. When a dust storm occurs what happens to the detail seen? I assume Mars is just a kind of reddish disc in this instance? 

 

Cheers

[Nik271]

12 minutes ago, Barry-W-Fenner said:

I have had very few opportunity's to view Mars of late. (Or observe in general) The planet has shown some excellent detail on most occasions so I guess I am quite lucky. When a dust storm occurs what happens to the detail seen? I assume Mars is just a kind of reddish disc in this instance? 

 

Cheers

Same here. Cloudy cloudy cloudy...

At least the report say that its a _regional_ dust storm close to Valles Marineris. It may actually make the view even more exciting if the clouds lift up.

[John]

41 minutes ago, Barry-W-Fenner said:

I have had very few opportunity's to view Mars of late. (Or observe in general) The planet has shown some excellent detail on most occasions so I guess I am quite lucky. When a dust storm occurs what happens to the detail seen? I assume Mars is just a kind of reddish disc in this instance? 

 

Cheers

A localised dust storm tends to change / blur the boundaries between the pale and darker areas (the later image below shows a localised dust storm)

A more extensive dust storm considerably obscures the darker features across much more of the disk so it basically appears plainer and relatively featureless:

 

 

Edited November 17, 2020 by John

[chiltonstar]

18 hours ago, RobertI said:

The blog is a fascinating read, there are some really dedicated people doing some great work there. I never knew there was so much happening on Mars! 

Quite tempts me to join the BAA! I've been thinking about it for some time.

Cris

[Nik271]

It appears that the storm has been captured in recent Mars images from 14 November by Mariusz Goralski. Looks spectacular, I wonder if it can be seen visually with 8 inch instruments provided the clouds lift in time.

 

 

[JeremyS]

Updated note: https://britastro.org/node/25021

 

[jock1958]

Nice sketch @John was tempted to go out but it keeps clouding over and with high winds decided to bin it for tonight ☹️

[John]

4 minutes ago, jock1958 said:

Nice sketch @John was tempted to go out but it keeps clouding over and with high winds decided to bin it for tonight ☹️

Yep, it's a bit wild out there

 

[chiltonstar]

I tried a little earlier with my 102mm f13 frac, and thought I could see something but the seeing was too poor to be sure.

Chris

[John]

I've nearly given up here - so much cloud about and a gusty wind moving it around fast

 

[JeremyS]

On 17/11/2020 at 17:08, chiltonstar said:

Quite tempts me to join the BAA! I've been thinking about it for some time.

Cris

You’d be most welcome, Chris 🙂

[JeremyS]

Paul Abel has posted a drawing from this evening showing the dust: https://britastro.org/node/25050

[John]

42 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

Paul Abel has posted a drawing from this evening showing the dust: https://britastro.org/node/25050

Looks like my "brighter patch" is in the right area area but I could get nowhere near the detail that Paul has drawn there. The darker features on my sketch  do seem to generally match what Paul has captured though, which I'm quite pleased about given the conditions here tonight.

 

[Stu]

Great catch @John. I had seen some mention of a dust storm, but haven’t had the chance to observe. It certainly looks to be in the right area 👍👍. Hope I can catch it soon.

[John]

Just observing Mars again now with my Tak FC100.

That brighter streak / corridor though the darker terrain in the SW quadrant of the planets disk that Paul Abel draws in his 1st drawing in Jeremy's link above seems to be quite visible just now. It divides off a chunk of the darker area to the W of it.

Worth a look if you can get out, before that area rotates off the disk.

I'm supposed to be cooking supper now so I'm just grabbing a few moments at the scope while my other half is on the phone

 

[John]

4 minutes ago, John said:

Just observing Mars again now with my Tak FC100.

That brighter streak / corridor though the darker terrain in the SW quadrant of the planets disk that Paul Abel draws in his 1st drawing in Jeremy's link above seems to be quite visible just now. It divides off a chunk of the darker area to the W of it.

Worth a look if you can get out, before that area rotates off the disk.

I'm supposed to be cooking supper now so I'm just grabbing a few moments at the scope while my other half is on the phone

 

I've flipped Paul's drawing to get the refractor view here and arrowed the pale feature that I'm seeing:

 

[dweller25]

Here is my rough drawing I did at the eyepiece at 18:05 in poorish seeing