Mars!

[Paul G. Abel]

Greetings everyone!

Well, I stayed up all night for this- the start my observations for the Martian apparition of 2009-2010, and it was worth waiting for. The Martian disk has now exceeded 6 arc seconds, and so visual observation with my telescope is now feasible.

The drawing bellow was made this morning, and although only the dominant features are present, a number of interesting details are on show- there is the large bright Northern Polar Regions, and I strongly suspected a bright white morning cloud on the following limb. The bright region Eridania was prominent on the south following limb.

Best wishes,

-Paul.

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[ashenlight]

That is beautiful Paul, a really well executed sketch. What size telescope were you using?

[DAVPPK]

Very nice, shame I can't stay up that late (school...*sigh* )

Dave

[Paul G. Abel]

Thanks Ashenlight! My telescope is a Skywatcher 203mm (8 inch) Newtonian Reflector- it is mounted on a permanant pier set up in my observatory. I use my special planetary eyepeice which gives a power of 312x.

DAVPPK- your time will come! Have you made any drawings of the Moon and planets yet? I urge you to have a crack at it! If you need any planet blanks, let me know!

[ashenlight]

that's a great size telescope, I am beginning to find my 5" a little too small now, although it is perfectly adequate for the time being. I hope to have a 10" dob by next winter.

great work Paul, looking forward to seeing more

[Doc]

I agree top notch sketch.

[lulu57]

Lovely sketch...very clever indeed.

We're not worthy.

[Andrew]

Paul,

That is a wonderful sketch. I wish I could see that much detail in Mars. I'm looking forward to seeing more of your Mars sketches over the Winter.

[Craig H]

Lovely sketch Paul,keep up the good work ....I got my first view of Mars this week, and a lovely sight it was too.

[bish]

It's incredible the detail you have managed. I have just posted on another thread that I didn't hold out much hope of seeing anything at the moment with Mars being so small! Now I've seen your sketch I will give it a go (although my smaller scope may not pick out the details)

[rawhead]

Looking forward to getting the DMK on Mars.

I've only ever seen the slightest hint of detail visually. I find Mars a very testing target. Hope to improve on that this time out.

That's a great pic Paul.

Cheers

Jon

[barkis]

Lovely job again Paul.

Some say this is easy, but I beg to differ. In my case, I couldn't draw anything, even using tracing paper:D I kid you not.

I'm happy to appreciate others work in this area though.

Ron.