Mars -seeing is good

Greg LaFlamme

Just came in from out back. I had my 10 f4.5 barlowed @ 330x and Mars was so sharp and contrasty that I had to sketch it. That's tough to do without drives and its a little sloppy but it highlights what I saw. I can put it up in Fototime tomorrow. Long brown "roots" spread around extending from the N to S polar caps and out along the equator creating a tangled "X". The The Northern ice cap extended about a third of the planets radius and overlapped one of those brown roots. I'm not sure if there really are two visible ice caps right now or if I'm seeing the illuminated atmosphere but it sure is pretty. I started yawning uncontrollably though and had to come in. I hope we all got a piece tonight :-)

GML