| Observer | Dave Staples |
|---|---|
| Date | 13 June 2001 |
| Time | 01:50-03:00 PDT 08:50-10:00 UTC |
| Location | Santa Rosa, Ca 38°24'N 122°42'W |
| Weather | Warm, and windy |
| Equip | C8, 26mm, 10mm plossls, 2x barlow |
| Seeing | 6-7/10 |
| Trans | 8/10 |
Continuing my program of sleep deprivation and Mars observing, I got up at about 1:50am to check out our local red giant.
See was what I would call marginal for Mars, pretty steady at 156x but on the edge at 406x. At 406x I was able to make out detail but only of the most prominent features.
The Central meridian was about 314 deg, Syrtis Major was clearly visible and I could make out Sinus Sabaeus and Decaulionis Regio that separates Sinus Sabaeus from the darker region below. Mare Boreum and Utopia were merged to the north.
It has been neat to watch Mars get bigger and brighter as it gets to opposition and closest approach. Last night it was so bright that it seemed like a disk to the naked eye...just imagination I know but MAN was it bright.
Any more detail would be pure imagination. One neat thing I did notice last night is that Sagittarius really does look like a teapot...kind of cool.
For anybody that cares, I will be off work for 6 weeks starting Friday (paid sabbatical...YIPPEE...), so I have unsubscribed (to avoid those stupid auto replies) from my work email address and subscribed with my home address and I'll be posting from there or my yahoo address. The new address is ednalynn @ pacbell.net.