Anyone manage to get up early yet and observe mars with a scope?
What level of detail can be seen at the moment?
Any dust storms?

Michael

Well, I guess to try and answer my own query I decided after the weather forecast I would get up at a ridiculously early time of 3.45 and give Mars a go! I hadn't seen Mars in a scope before (only have my LX90 about 8 months) and so was unsure what to expect. However, after allowing a small bit of time for the scope to cool down a bit, I could clearly see a disc about 80-85% sunlit. The southern polar cap was easy to spot . After this however, things got a little difficult. As the disc is only 14" wide and allowing for my scope not fully cooled down and for Mars relatively low over the horizon, trying to see surface detail was difficult.
What have anyone else seen?

saw mars from Tunisia last week when close to the moon at 4am, amazing how brighter it was due to being only 36 degrees above the equator in Tunisia compared to a paltry 53 here.

Just wondering what sort of Magnification I would need to start seeing the surface details?

Bart.

When I was looking at Mars - and bear in mind it was my first time looking at it through a scope - I had my 9.7mm eyepiece in, which gives a magnification of 209x. I tried lower mag. but could see very little. The problem with Mars is just how small the disc is. At it's best later this year, it'll only be as big as the disc of Saturn and with this it will be fairly low over the horizon. As a result, the atmospheric conditions will determine how much power you will be able to use and thus the level of detail. However, having said all that, I'm gonna take every oppurtunity I get to look at this amazing planet!

I got a good view of Mars on the morning of the 6th of July (Sunday). A polar cap was clearly visible, and some darker markings (this was at 4.30 in the morning so the sky was blue). I used a 26mm eyepiece which gives a magnification of 116x.Im, hoping that tonight (Saturday the 12 July) with the clear sky, I can get a better look, time to let the scope cool down. I was amazed at how big mars had become in the last 6 weeks, It looks like it has nearly doubled in size.

Anyone planning any Mars observation sessions over the coming weeks? Perhaps a trip up to Djouce on a good clear night?

Anyone planning any Mars observation sessions over the coming weeks? Perhaps a trip up to Djouce on a good clear night?

As in the carpark with all the trees? Will it be high enough to see? It only seems to get about 22degrees above the horizon. Sugar loaf might be a better option.

Is anyone planning any free public sessions? Sandymount has a clear view south, I'll mail John O'Neill (IAS) and see if they are planning anything.

Cheers,
~Al

Got in some nice views of Mars early this morning. Was able to push my LX90 up to 340x and could see some nice detail. The southern polar cap was clearly visible as was Mare Erythraeum whose shape and reddish-grey colour was fairly distinct from the rest of the orangy-red disc.
BTW, one program I use to help me with Mars is called Mars Previewer II. There has been some reports of viruses associated with this program recently. If you have downloaded it in the last few months, it might be a good idea to run a virus check on your PC. Due to how popular this program has become, someone decided to set up a mirror download site. Unfortuantely however, their PC got infected with a virus which attached itself to the Mars program. To make matters worse, it appears that Astronomy magazine recommended readers in the August '03 edition to go to the mirror website and download the program from there! They now have a warning on their website containing some info @ www.astronomy.com . If however, you downloaded the program from the Sky and Telescope website, then you are ok. They certify that their version is virus-free: skyandtelescope.com/resources/software/article_328_1.asp
I downloaded it from them months ago. I've recently virus-checked my PC and it's fine. Hope this is of use to someone.
Michael

Got my first views last night. As usual I didnt wait for the scope to cool down (too tired!), and there was a light haze high up, and it was warm and mars was visibly twinkling to the naked eye.

Despite all this I used my 6.4 eyepiece to give 158X magnification, and was able to distinguish the polar cap and what looked like a dark fat Y shape on the disc, that seems to have been syrtis , serpentis and thyerrenhum.

Filters were a great help though.

Cheers,
~Al

What filter do you find best for making out surface detail if you don't mind me asking? I tried the 23a briefly a few nights ago but didn't find it much use. Must give it a proper go though sometime. Any other filters anyone would care to recommend?

What filter do you find best for making out surface detail if you don't mind me asking? I tried the 23a briefly a few nights ago but didn't find it much use. Must give it a proper go though sometime. Any other filters anyone would care to recommend?

I just went through my filter box trying different ones.
The red, orange and yellow-green ones (sorry I dont know the kodak numbers offhand) seemed to bring out the best contrast of the dark patches on the surface.

I found the blue and green filters best for bringing out the polar cap.

Cheers,
~Al

Ive uploaded a 2 page handout for anyone who is wants something to give out at any observing sessions but doesnt want the hassle of drafting up their own:

groups.yahoo.com/group/irishfas/files/mars.pdf

Feedback welcome!

Cheers,
~Al (IAS)

Had a look at mars last weekend. V. nice. Tried the dark red 23A filter again. Gave it a bit of time and effort on this occasion and reaped the rewards. I found that it helps big-time to improve the contrast of the surface details. Tried my other filters (yellow, green and blue) but found that they weren't as good to bring out the surface detail but helped to improve the ciontrast a small bit for the polar cap. When looking at a map of Mars it shows the Hellas region as if it's a bright white region similar to the polar cap. But when I looked at it through a scope I was only barely able to distinguish it from the surrounding area. Mabey it's my eyesight or do other observers here find the same? That pdf on mars looks v. nice Albert. Well done. Nice tough to put in a picture of what to expect when looking through a scope. People are a bit spoiled nowadays with the Hubble telescope hence expectations are a bit too high.

Hi Michael,
Maybe the program expected you to see a fine layer of frost or clouds in the Hellas region, hehe just kidding..

I've never seen anything (besides the caps) that remote approach a whitish colour, just varing shades of red. I'm not saying its not there, just that I've never seen it.

From Gordon Nason:

If you haven't been staying up late to observe Mars yet, please do so. The detail is absolutely fantastic. Best views I've ever had and it's not even at its closest yet. I stayed up until nearly 3am on a couple of nights this week. The South Polar Cap is a brilliant white surrounded by a dark hood, signs of it melting. At the moment, the northern hemisphere facing us in the early hours of the morning is somewhat barren but the southern hemisphere is full of detail with Mare Cimmerium, Mare Sirenum, Mare Chronium, Eridania, Hesperia and Mare Tyrrhenum quite easily seen using a 10" LX50 with a 8mm Radian giving 312x. High power is essential - I tried 385x but unfortunately the seeing just wasn't good enough. Perhaps tonight! Observers I know in the US south-west have managed 500-700x!

Gordon

I went up to the mountains last night to get above the mist and away form the lights to get a look at Mars, and luckily ran into the SDAS folks, so had plenty of scopes to look through, some pretty spectacular meteors and a very bright iridium flare.

Nice views with just over 200x magnification, I need to use a 2x barlow and a 6mm eyepiece to get above 300x but thats a little hard on they eye if youre looking at it for a long time.

The one thing I learned last night, thanks to Gordon and the other observers!, is that observing planets like this requires more than a quick look through the eyepiece. Through the night the seeing changes, and occasionally you get glimpses of detail. So you need to keep watching for those brief periods of exceptional seeing which will let you see the detail, and by the end of the night you will actually have seen quite a lot of the planets detail. Looking at it for 5 or 10 minutes isnt enough

Ideally this is where the webcam would come in for imaging, but I cant try that till my boss gets back from his holidays and I can borrow his laptop!

Added to the shopping wish list now btw are: a green laser pointer, just cause they are cool!; focus motor, as the scope shakes too much when focusing by hand and shock absorbing pads for the same reason.

Cheers,
~Al

We got a very clear night here in Limercik on Thursday the 8th, so I called over to a friends house to do a bit of observing, didnt get home until 4.30. We got great views of Mars, the polar cap is so white and big that it is unmistakable.
There seems to be a dark edge around the side of the cap. The southern side of the globe is full of detail while the north is pretty barren.
In the south we could see a bright area between Mare Sirenum and Mare Chronium, these "seas" really sweep the southern side of the planet and link up with other seas such as MAre Tyrrhenum. I'd really recommend Mars Previewer2 for naming the sites your looking at on Mars, and be careful of the virus Michael warned about earlier.
We also saw 12 PErseids between 2 and 3 am (between mags2 and -1) and 2 sporadics.

We in galway were also out on thursday night, and a lovely clear warm night it was, made a few calls and 7 carloads of us ventured out to our dark viewing location in Connemera,with 3 telescopes. Yes mars was fantastic and the mars previewer2 was a useful tool, overall mars was a wonderfull sight, high above the Burren of co.Clare. Even with a bright Moon we saw many Perseid meteors some with dust tails and to cap it off we saw a -7 iridium flare. by far one of our best viewing sessions in many years. Ronan. Galway Astronomy Club

We had another look at Mars last night (Sunday 10th - Monday 11th), this time it was a club outing, approx 10 people showing due to the short notice as I didnt know which way the sky would turn, it ended up been a good one. From our site in mid county Limerick we can easily see as far as the Galtee mountains, anyway, we all had a good view of the Red planet, seeing again the polar cap and more southern "seas".
There was one 12" SCT, two 8"SCTs, a 3"Mak, a 4"Newtonian and an assortment of binoculars so everyone got a good view.
I hope we can get a nother look next weekend, and especially the weekend after. Keep your eyes in the skies for the perseids.

Was out observing Mars again last night (and hopefully tonight, fingers crossed!). One think that struck me was that the southern polar cap appeared to have got smaller over the last 4-6 weeks. Anyone else noticed this or was it just extreme exhaustion causing hallucinations??

Michael,
Polar cap getting smaller ??
I was looking at Mars again last night (friday 15th Aug) and I thought to myself that maybe the cap did look smaller, but I brushed it off as me imagining it !!!
Makes sence that it would be getting smaller as its hemisphere is in summer, but i really didn't think we could see it from here over the space of a few weeks. Might we be both imagining it ????
I'm trying to come up with an imaging reason (or why would we percieve it reason) for this .
Can anyone else confim our sightings, or shoot us down ???

Hello Everybody, i've just got an e-mail referring to this topic from observers of the Shallow Sky assn. It is a organisation for all solar system object lovers - why don't you join the e-mail list?? Popular topics are the moon & planets (obviously) www.shallowsky.com/shallow-sky.html

Here is a cut from an e-mail today - it refers to a polar cap shrinkage!

(Here's some good comparison images from several 2003 Mars images and a
couple from 2001. Noteworthy is the shrinking south polar cap this year plus
the lesser amounts of limb haze compared to 2001.
www.koyote.com/users/bobm/Mars.htm
8)

Got my first look at Mars last night through my little 6.25" DTG Dobson.

I literally set it up on the side walk out side the house and started observing. In no time at all I had a crowd of interested (as in some cases drunk!) people around me.

I only have one eyepiece at the moment so I could only view it at 50x but I was pleased to be able to make out some surface details. I could clearly see a large dark region starting in the center of the disk and curving liek an upside down 'j' towards the top right of the image. I could also see a hint of the polar ice caps.


I have arranged to get some time on the Physics departments 11" scope over the weekend so fingers crossed it is clear! That should give me some stunning views!

Bart B.

I literally set it up on the side walk out side the house and started observing. In no time at all I had a crowd of interested (as in some cases drunk!) people around me.

Myself and Jim set up on the `side walk` outside Djouce Car Park in the wicklow mountains. A couple of cars stopped by, one was the Gardai who send their regards to the regulars up there!

I dint think the air was steady enough to see much last night, I've seen clearer from my back garden the last couple of weeks. But I was there long enough to be able to see Mars rotating, and got my first glimpse of Uranus and Neptune!

Cheers,
~Al