Venus & Mars with a 100mm refractor.

[mikeDnight]

Venus is growing and Mars is shrinking. Both are challenging, but worth the effort.

 

[johnturley]

Amazing that you could make out the North Polar Cap on Mars with the tiny disc now less than 6 arc seconds.

John 

Edited April 27, 2023 by johnturley

[MalcolmM]

Great sketches and great observational skills! From my point of view, it's great to have something to aspire to!

Malcolm 

[Neil_104]

I concur, really nice drawings. Is that charcoal you use to get the dark sky around Mars? I think that way of sketching the planets really looks good.

[mikeDnight]

1 hour ago, Neil_104 said:

I concur, really nice drawings. Is that charcoal you use to get the dark sky around Mars? I think that way of sketching the planets really looks good.

Not charcoal Neil. It was a number 6 graphite pencil smoothed over using a cotton tipped ear bud. Trade secret!    Ear buds are actually brilliant for softening detail drawn with a pencil. You can even scribble some graphite on a spare piece of paper, then use the ear bud to pick up the graphite and transfer it onto a drawing. That way you don't get pencil marks. A soft malleable putty eraser can then be used to sharpen edges and lift graphite off the sketch to create highlights. 

[laudropb]

Remarkable detail there Mike. I had the 200mm Dob. Out to observe Mars a few nights ago but could not really make out any detail. Great job yet again Mike.

[mikeDnight]

38 minutes ago, laudropb said:

Remarkable detail there Mike. I had the 200mm Dob. Out to observe Mars a few nights ago but could not really make out any detail. Great job yet again Mike.

Thanks John. I've missed your posts, unless I've just not been paying attention, so It's great to hear from you. Hope you're well!

It wasn't easy as mars is very tiny even at high power. The trouble is that increasing the magnification reduces definition and amplifies any poor seeing or turbulence. Even at 128X using my binoviewer in the 100mm refractor I could just detect a tiny north polar cap and some darkening around the north polar region. At times the polar cap looked as if it was standing proud of the northern limb. That was probably due to some atmospheric wobble going on.

 

 

[Sunshine]

Amazing, considering Mars has looked a lot like Betelgeuse, to me, also using a 100mm refractor. In great seeing I can see the most minuscule white dot of a polar cap but that’s about it.

[laudropb]

Thanks for the kind words Mike. About 18 months ago I just lost my mojo for astronomy. My AZ 100 started playing up and them my solar find Mount suddenly stopped finding the Sun. I was spending more time trouble shooting than observing. Hopefully after my rest I can now get back to my favourite pastime.

[dweller25]

Great drawings Mike, I tried last night (28th) to view Mars but the clouds rolled in soon after Sunset, hey ho !

I did get to view Venus earlier though and saw a bright limb and some barely detectable super subtle darker patches that were difficult to confirm.

Hopefully we will get more clear evenings soon…..

Edited April 29, 2023 by dweller25

[JeremyS]

On 28/04/2023 at 23:19, laudropb said:

Thanks for the kind words Mike. About 18 months ago I just lost my mojo for astronomy. My AZ 100 started playing up and them my solar find Mount suddenly stopped finding the Sun. I was spending more time trouble shooting than observing. Hopefully after my rest I can now get back to my favourite pastime.

Great to see you back. I hope your equipment woes are in the past and that you get your enjoyment back 👍🏻