Mars, Jan 2nd 2010

[Starman]

A bit chilly last night and I noticed that my C-14's primary was covered in condensate during the session. It's drying out at the moment but will probably be offline for tonight's show

Here's a capture of Mars taken during the early hours of the 2nd January 2010.

[Beyond_Vision]

That certainly was worth the chill. A great amount of detail picked up Pete thanks for sharing that with us

Regards

Kevin

[resonator77]

Hats off to you Pete

very nice

[barkis]

That's just amazing Pete. Your C14 sure brings the the planets a lot closer to us.

Ron.

[astroman001]

Great image Pete!

[dweller25]

Fantastic image. It's incredible that Earth based scopes can capture so much detail, well done.

[Steve922]

Beautiful! what a great shot!

Steve

[JAO]

Superb indeed, some significant detail. Hope the C14 dries out soon!

[Starman]

Thanks chaps. The C-14 has a crescent of moisture on the inside of the corrector plate which is being stubborn to clear. If it's still there in the morning, the corrector will be taken off, cleaned and the inside of the OTA dried out properly.

[Cazagee]

Wow, excellent photos.

Thank you for posting

Carol

[Clayton]

Amazing detail! Well done!

[Towa]

Super image Pete.

[Starman]

Thanks for all the comments

Here's another image taken slightly later which has processed up a bit cleaner. I believe you can see the Huygens crater quite clearly in this image in the junction where the Syrtis Major (V-shaped feature on the left) connects with the Sinus Sabaeus (long, almost horizontal feature to the right).

[glowjet]

No other words for it , fantastic.

[brianb]

Nice one Pete!

Do you get the impression that Hellas has darkened quite a lot over the last couple of months?

Not sure about the "crater" ... there's obviously something there but I'm afraid it doesn't jump out at me & say "look at me, I'm a crater". Of course the lighting is flat, most lunar craters are hard to define under those conditions.

[Starman]

Interestingly, on another board someone expressed surprise that my Hellas was so dark, one camp saying it's bright! Personally, I think it's dark.

The crater won't jump out at you as a crater, like it would on the Moon. It's more the effect it has on the albedo patterning in the general area that's visible. However, if the crater wasn't there, then the patterning wouldn't show like it does. IIRC, the dot is the crater floor. Imaging shadows cast by the crater's rim would be pushing it a bit with Mars

The same is true of the little 'nick' that appears just to the left of the Sinus Meridiani (the two blobs with another fainter blob below them, close to the right hand edge of the planet in my shot above). This is formed by the crater Schiaparelli, the 'nick' being an albedo extension, following the rim of the crater.

[skye at night]

Those are lovely images.

Steve

[Starman]

Thanks Steve.

[Starman1]

Wow! great pics of Mars. great detail too.