Interesting north pole detail, Feb 1st

[Starman]

Reasonably good seeing last night but the transparency was variable. An interesting feature in the north polar cap was plainly visible under these conditions.

[russ]

That's very nice Pete. The final RGB image is astonishing to say the least.

Your blue channel image is how Mars appeared visually for me last night, perhaps with the features slightly darker in the scope. There was a hint of something on the polar cap but nothing more visually for me.

Russ

[Jupiter Martin]

I belive it is spring in the polar region and this is probably the melting and breaking up of the ice cap super capture Pete. you can see that so clearly

[Starman]

It's a jet of dust passing over the cap apparently.

[Rob]

Fatastic detail Pete.. so is that a mountain ridge within the polar cap there?.. great capture though.

Rob

[Starman]

Hi Rob,

No - it's a stream of dust passing over the cap.

[themos]

Hmm, my capture at midnight of 29-30 January showed something similar but as it was only a 4.5-inch instrument, I wasn't sure if it was a true feature. The alignment seems to match, relative to the Acidalia Planitia.

[kev 102 42]

it must be one helluve dust storm ,how long will that last Pete/?........kev

[Starman]

No idea Kev. The atmosphere's pretty rarified and I guess with all the sublimation that's occuring as the polar cap warms up, it's pretty easy to create disturbances in the atmosphere like that.

Themos, you defintely have it in your photo. By midnight it had rotated around and no longer looks like it does in my earlier shot. Here's a green capture from last night taken just past midnight...

[Starman]

Actually, you might have an artifact after all as it's on the wrong side of the cap - sorry.

[themos]

It is on the other side from your photo but then again it's 3 days earlier...

[Starman]

Sorry, I didn't clock the date!

In that case then yes - you have definitely caught it (again ).

[themos]

This website shows recent maps of dust storms

THEMIS keeps an eye on developing Mars dust storms | Mars Odyssey Mission THEMIS

[themos]

I will keep watching this Mars weather site

MSSS Mars Captioned Image Releases

PS: this is a bit exciting!

[themos]

There's a hint of it in this photo:

[moocher]

Who`d have thought Mars could be so interesting!!!! Just out of interest Pete do you ever LOOK through that C14?

Alan:)

[Starman]

I have to line it up Alan

I observed Mars through Patrick Moore's 15" the other night and the view was fantastic. It was really nice to have a visual connection with the planet and to be able to see what it was I had been imaging.

Mars is always exciting!!

[Rob]

Mars is always exciting!!

Can't agree more...

Rob

[neil phillips]

As always your detail is very accurrate, with no smear at all, the detail on the NPC rift is very revealing, havent seen it quite like this yet. JUST READ YOUR COMMENTS PETE apologies so its a dust cloud after all, this should change apperance quite fast then. you really got it defined here.

Nice one Pete, weather here has been bad here but after freezing for 3 days in a row think my jibblets need thawing anyway

Just done a 13 pane animation from the 30th 31st, but so far my mobile net wont load it. It was made in png, GIF i noticed was effecting quality.

What i need now is video software to do a loop on the png avi, If you know of any. Might do a GIf animation to see if i can upload it though.

Wish i could have seen yours, Must get a proper net connection. dont ever use T mobile really it sucks

Great shot

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Really, really, great stuff!

[Clayton]

Another fine shot Pete