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My Best View of Mars Ever!

Paul G. Abel

By Paul G. Abel
in Sketching

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Paul G. Abel

Paul G. Abel

Posted
Posted

Greetings everyone!

Well, the weather finally broke here on the 17th, and we had one of the best nights for planetary observations I have ever experienced. Seeing was constantly around AI, the slightly misty conditions made the air very steady indeed and the image of Mars was rock steady in the eyepiece. Imagine my suprise when, with my 8 inch reflector, I found I could use a power of 500x without to much image degradation! I don't think I've very experienced conditions like it!

Anyhow, here's the drawings:

Mars-170110-Abel.jpg

Drawing A: Bright clouds over the Tharsis volcanoes, over Chryse. Solis Lacus present on the proc. edge of the disk. Lowell band is probably the darkest feature on the disk.

Drawing B: Some interesting faint markings present in Tharsis, subtle shading present in the Lowell band extending up onto the disk. Bright morning clouds present on the fol. limb.

NPC Drawing: Lowell band appears to be composed of many fine fragments- a brighter region appears to be present in the NPC.

Drawing C: Evening cloud begins to disperse somewhat. Still clouds present in the Tharsis region.

All best wishes,

-Paul.

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russ

russ

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Excellent work Paul. A number of us experienced that wonderful night and great views at high mags. Looking at your drawings it appears you saw some of the detail better than i did that night. For me the North polar cap really stood out with the dark feature running round it. But the features to the south were very very subtle indeed. I got a hint of the bright area on the eastern limb but wondered if it was my imagination. But your drawings are yet further confirmation i did see something.

Anyway, great work!

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barkis

barkis

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Paul, Those are simply stunning sketches of the planet.

I'm useless at sketching, or drawing of any kind, but I appreciate the skills of those who can, and this is as good as I've seen.

Thanks very much for sharing your work with us.

Ron.:)

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Towa

Towa

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Great drawings Paul.

In spite of its small size, Mars as been giving some great views this year. I've been using scopes from 76mm up to 120mm,

and I've always managed to see some detail.

BTW, did you ever read that piece by the late Thomas Cave and how he had to take the scopes inside his garage because of the wind.

He was rewarded with some of the best high magnification Mars views he had ever seen.

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russ

russ

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It's funny, i've had better views and more fun with Mars this time round (since October last year) than i did in 2005 or 2003. For me it's been a good Mars season so far. Had a couple of nights that were like the 17th, espescially on some of the early starts in November.

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DarkerSky

DarkerSky

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Wonderful sketches and descriptions there, Paul. I take my hat off to you - you really have a keen eye (and no doubt a lot of experience) for pulling out the fine detail. Superb stuff. :)

I was out that evening also with excellent seeing, but the fineness of some of those details eluded me.

It is good to note, as Russ has done, about the eastern limb brightnening. Confirms what I saw. I also made out the brighter central features in drawing A - but more as a general brightening in the area rather than the 2 distinct areas you saw. I also noted the subtle shading on the south of the disc, and brightening on the following limb. Super to know that the latter were morning clouds :D

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Towa

Towa

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Hi Towa, no I've not read that, but it is one of the reasons I have an observatory- it cuts out the icy blasts!

I wish these wretched clouds would clear so i can look at another part of the Martian disk!!!!

Hi Paul

The article appears in Astronomy Now from September 1988 edition.

The late Thomas Cave was writing about observing Mars.

While using a friends 8 inch f/8 reflector scope, they had to take shelter from very strong wind. Observing from inside the garage

he says that "we were amazed at the absolutely perfect seeing and vast amount of detail we could see with powers up to x400 and x500".

The article is well worth reading with many interesting notes in it.

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Towa

Towa

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Thanks Towa! I'll look out for it!

I must say I like the colours in your drawings- I use water colour crayons which as you can see in my drawing here, gives a true Mars colour! Pencils and crayons simple cheap image processing!!!!

Paul

I use blendable colouring pencils at the moment, but I think I will give the water colour crayons a go.

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