Mars/Saturn

[russ]

Things are really hotting up in the morning now but not the weather. I was out again this morning and had yet another really good session with Mars and Saturn.

Mars was beautiful at 333x and 400x in the dob. The sky was so steady. At one point i forgot to take out the 3x Tal and dropped the 6mm Ortho into it without realising. That's 600x!!! It was somewhat soft and i did curse a bit that the 6mm wasn't performing until i realised. But the view wasn't terrible. But just made the view at 400x even more cracking. There was some very nice detail coming through with longer viewing.

Saturn was sharpest view yet in the morning. And best with the 18mm Paradigm and 3x Tal barlow (200x). It was great to just let it drift through the field in the dob and be amazed at how sharp the rings were. Some nice banding too.

[Doc]

I should stop being so lazy and get out of bed.

I bet the detail on Mars was fantastic Russ at the mag and steady skies as well.

[russ]

Hi Mick,

The detail was indeed very nice at 400x. I didn't use any filters this time.....i left the lid of the eyepiece case open and the filters were drenched Would have been nice to try a filter at that power to see if i could tease out any extra detail. That will have to be for another day.

[beamish]

It's great to hear Russ, but help being a bit green, skies are still rubbish !

[russ]

Don't worry Karlo, it will clear soon. It will be worth it when it does.

[chrisrnuttall]

I too have been getting up early to observe mars, if you can be arsed get out of bed at 5am, the seeing is much better then than at 6 or 7, i think it might be to do with the sun starting to warm the air later on... anyway, i have had 4 sessions on mars so far this year and the two when i got up earlier were fantastic, i went straight to X375 (that's the max i have on my set up). Red or green filters really helped with dark areas on the disc. You can almost watch the seeing deteriorate at about half six as it gets light. it was -8C in my garden one morning though, i think i need a kettle in the shed! I have attached some sketches.

regards, Chris

[russ]

Some fantastic drawings Chris. Some wonderful detail seen there.

I got up at 4am on Boxing day....really nice sky. It was good to see the detail back again. My last few goes with Mars had been showing less detail than in early December.

[chrisrnuttall]

4 AM ?!?. Did you go back to bed again afterwards?

Mars seems so tiny at the moment, it suprises me how much can be seen in those still moments. Makes me wonder what it would be like if Mars could be big and high up at the same time. Does anyone know if the perihelic oppositions will always be during our northern summer, or will it change in the future?

[chrisrnuttall]

I have just answered my own question. i got this from this web site

Mars Oppositions

march 2012, same size as 2010

april 2014, same size as 2010

may 2016 slightly better size, but low down

july 2018, big diameter, but very low

october 2020, big diameter, and quite high up

december 2022, medium diameter, very high up.

so only eleven years to wait for a half decent aparition. Also all the properly perihelic oppositions will ocur in the northern summer for at least the next 50 years. Since i cannot contemplate moving to the southern hamisphere i think i will simply content myself with what we have. Or maybe when i am a millionaire i could have a nice holiday to new zealand......mmmm, yes.

[Talitha]

Excellent sketches Chris, and thanks for the link and opposition info.

[bish]

I was out on the evenings of 27th and 28th. Cloud and really terrible seeing kept spoiling things but after several hours on the 28th (about 01:00am) the air finally steadied and I got my first proper look at Mars this year. At x333 I could make out a bright pole and a good amount of surface detail (haven't compared my sketch yet to work out what area I was looking at). I was mainly observing through cloud but still got good views. I waited up for another hour trying to see Saturn but the cloud was so thick by then that I couldn't even locate it with the bins.

[chrisrnuttall]

Bish

at least you got an observation out of the evening, i find it sooo anoying when it clouds over just as you get going and you have to put everything away again.

I just checked the weather forecast (assuming you are in the UK) and it looks pretty cloudy and unsettled until the weekend, also the jet stream looks like getting stronger in the next couple of days. I think i might devote my time to trying to finish all the christmas booze instead!

Hopefully i might get another mars observation in on sat or sun morning.I might have a look for saturn too, haven't bothered since conjunction.

[JAO]

Chris

Superb set of sketches, the near constant cloud cover where I am is driving me mad, lots of glass and no sky to see

Adrian

[Cate]

Fantastic sketches Chris, it's good to see what you've seen - my max magnification is 233 so its helpful to see what I'm missing.