Mars - 2nd April

[DarkerSky]

Grabbed my 8.5" scope last night for a rather brief session with Mars inbetween the shower clouds. The disc is so very small now 9.1 arc seconds. Still yielding some detail, even on the 'quiet' side.

Scope: 8.5" Mag x240

Red filter

Seeing: 2

20.55 - 20.15 UT

CM: approx 147

NPC small but still very noticeable. Dark collar around NPC also still quite striking, as was the phase at 91%.

It took a fair amount of effort and some moments of good seeing to tease the subtle details out - and boy are they subtle! First glance revealed a fairly featureless disc, but eventually some parts of the disc caught my eye - overall the markings gave the disc a mottled appearance with averted vision.

On the SE limb was a distinct brightened area. This I think corresponds to around about the Tharsis region. Northwest of it there was a couple of darker patches that seemed to step out towards the centre of the disc. A forked marking was seen near the equator at the CM, this seemed to be forked on the western side, with areas curving off north and south. A faint dark patch was seen in the northeast near the limb and in the southwest near another brighter area.

The southern polar area seemed failry devoid of markings.

[yeti monster]

Good report DS, I'm hoping that Mars will be a feasable target when I return home next week. If I can grab a decent focus, I shall attempt a sketch.

[dweller25]

DS - it looks like our two 8" scopes are in agreement. I think I've run out of aperture. You may get a little more time with the canon :-)