by Phil Chambers
2. Mars
Thats it. For me anyway. Had the webcam in the Melestron showing pics on the Mac laptop.
Very interesting occurance or two though. An Iridium flare in exactly the same spot as last Thurs was one. Another was a bolide to the south that dumped pieces as it disintegrated (no sound).
The other was the fog. Around 10:30 or so, the sky was very clear with just a touch of fog way over to the west. Within 15 min, all you could see was mars. About 25 min later the sky was clear again and stayed that way. Weird. I was expecting this 15 mile wide UFO to come down out of the cloud.
I captured 2 batches of frames while I was setting there explaining for the umpteenth time that Mars was not on fire or rotating quickly, but the earths atmosphere was the culprit.
I did a fast process a few minutes ago and the results are quite nice. The bluish clouds over the north pole show up quite well. First time I have captured that.
There was a "huge" line for the 8 in refractor that was set up in the parking area. Lots of customers. Nice night. Not as wet as last Thurs although it started to go that way when the fog magically disappeared. I think that is the fastest onset and disappearance of fog I have witnessed.
Nice evening. Home about 1:30.
I am definitely making up for the lack of mars viewing last year due to the sandstorm.