Mars on St Davids Day

[DarkerSky]

Swung my 16" at Mars tonight for an intense couple of hours, and was rewarded with some excellent subtle detail off the surface.

16" x295 Mag

Red filter

Seeing: 3. Sometimes 2.

CM: 86 degrees approx

The NPC is a slither of white light now. Didn't really look like the classic semi-circular polar cap. More like a flattish area that curved with the limb on the eastern side. Mare Acidalium was just caught as a darker patch exiting the disk to the east. Shading extended up from Acidalium and curved round through the equator, culminating in a darker patch to the south. This darker patch I am taking as Niliacus Lacus. The brightness of Chyrse (perhaps clouds in Chyrse??) was striking as it separated the northern and equatorial markings from Aurorae Sinus in the south.

The central disc area was dominated by Tharsis, and an extension of it slipping northwards towards Mare Acidalium. A very bright area was noted close to the NPC just west of Mare Acidalium too. To the west more shading was seen, this being Arcadia and the darker markings bordering Tharsis on its western side.

In the south a rather muted Solis Lacus was on the CM. Two distinct protrusions shot westwards from solic lacus, with a fainter one extending southwestwards. The planet's phase was also clearly made out.

[dweller25]

Great sketch with the 'big gun'

Seeing was great around 7pm but seemed to get worse as Mars climbed higher!!

I also noticed the NPC was tiny.

You will be able to get useful views for quite some time with the Lightbridge.

[Towa]

Excellent Drawing and observation.

I was observing the planet last night at 20:15 UT with my 6 inch f/8 refractor and I was amazed by the detail visible. It was as if the planet was covered in dark markings. The dark detail in the north and south appeared to be split by a very bright band.

I also observed the curved dark patch that appeared to extend across the equator region. The amount of detail really was superb.

[DarkerSky]

Thanks for the comments. As this is my first time with Mars at this aperture it'll be interesting to see at what point detail becomes less obvious. The planet is still pretty big in the EP, so im hopeful that it'll keep producing the goods for me

Just been out again this evening (2nd). Seeing not so good tonight and spreading high cloud was dulling my view. CM a few degrees less, so not much difference over what I saw last night.

The brighter area west of Acidalium was much more muted this time, so I suspect that was a Martian cloud feature that I saw in that position last night. I did also make out a darker notch in the NPC collar at the western extent of Mare Acidalium. A brighter feature was seen on the SE limb at the start of the obs, but rotated out of view within 20-30mins

all in all pretty good

[chrisrnuttall]

nice drawing, i reckon you can see the subtle pale shadings better than i can in my 8". i had hints of it in the northern hemisphere but wihtout the definition you have shown.

how do you find the seeing using the 16"? one day i will get a bigger aperture newt but i have always been a bit concerned about the addage that bigger scopes are affected by poor seeing to a greater degree.

[DarkerSky]

Seeing is definately more of an issue in the 16" than with my 8.5". When using my 8.5" the view is normally steady enough to be useful after about 3/4 of an hour of setting up / scope cool time. In my 16" I need at least 2 hours - an hour with the fan going on the primary and then switching that off and leaving the thing to stabilise for a bit.

The image seems more 'twitchy' in the 16" too. But when seeing is generally good, detail really does shine through, and you are right that it does yield the subtler shading - mainly because the disc is so much bigger in the EP than with the 8.5"

[Mr Spock]

Very similar view to my own. I never know what the features are though, I'm no Mars expert.

[DarkerSky]

Very similar view to my own. I never know what the features are though, I'm no Mars expert.

It does take some time to get familiar with Martian markings. Would definately recommend rooting around the Net for a decent Mars map that shows the markings. I use S&T's Mars Profiler, which shows the central meridian at any given time, so you know what you're looking at through the EP. It gives some names out for the areas you are looknig at too. I also use the map I've got in my Norton's Star Atlas.