Mars

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