by Bob Jardine
The Moon would come up at around 10:00, so it wasn't to be a long night. But Mars wouldn't care. I've observing Mars as frequently as possible since Calstar. This may well be the last great opposition of Mars in my lifetime, so I don't want to miss it.
It was a pretty good turnout for a short night -- many of the usual suspects were there: Lance Boehm, Dennis Steele, Michael Swartz, Sander Pool, along with Akkana Peck and Dave North; and a couple of others that I didn't know.
Because it was MB, I didn't try for any faint stuff. Just a few doubles and a couple of asteroids, while waiting for Mars to get up high enough. Details on non-Mars objects below.
I started observing Mars around 10:00. I was using the 12.5" f/5 Portaball on an EQ platform. Typically I used a 7mm Nagler with a #25 red filter (Orion) or a 5mm Tak LE with no filter (the dang Tak EP threads don't fit standard filters!). That's 226X and 317X respectively.
The seeing was pretty darn good. The South polar cap was very small, but still visible, and very bright white. There was a much larger oval light area in the North (not the polar cap, which I think is out of view) -- probably clouds. Sinus Sabaeus and Sinus Meridiani were very evident, and often also the North-pointy-thing that follows Sinus Meridani (what's that thing called? Margaritaville, Margaritifer, something like that. ;-) I thought I could see Aurorae Sinus as well. Most of the southern half of the disk was darker than the northern half, but there was a light indentation just coming into view in the South. I thought it might be Argyre. There was also a very faint darker blob (only apparent about 25% of the time) coming around on the North -- maybe Niliacus Lacus???
To me, this is one of the more interesting sides of Mars -- better than the more obvious "thong" thing that has just passed out of view (ridden into the sunset?).
It was an excellent night for Mars. I observed it for over an hour and drew a sketch.
Mars! Joe Bob says: check it out! If not now, when?
Other Stuff;
| 42 Isis | Asteroid currently in Microscopium -- pretty easy location, not far South of Omega Cap. I estimated it as a little brighter than a nearby mag 11 star. |
|---|---|
| Epsilon Sagittae | dbl star -- a very wide easy double; split at 45X. Supposed to be splittable in binocs, but I couldn't do it with my 10X50s. Nice color contrast (yellow and white or pale blue). I didn't notice until I looked it up in Burnham's later, but it is a triple, and the third component should be visible -- need to go back for another look. |
| HIP 96688 | dbl star in Sagittae -- not a target, but I noticed it in the same FOV as Epsilon Sge, and it split easily at 45X (but much closer than Epsilon). Anonymous double on SA2000, but SNP says it must be HIP 96688; apparently not a Struve. |
| Theta Sagittae | dbl star -- fairly tight dbl at 93X; about two magnitudes different, yellow and red; PA is NNW, maybe 320 to 340 degrees. |
| 23 Thalia | Asteroid currently in Cetus -- Forms an almost-square with three stars near HIP 3609. About the same magnitude as the three stars of the "square", so about 10.5. |
Posted on sf-bay-tac Oct 24, 2005 11:45:07 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.2 Mar 15, 2006 19:23:14 PT