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Mars on Good Friday

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10 years 8 months ago #100516 by flt158
Mars on Good Friday was created by flt158
Valerie and I have just come in from observing Mars. We went up to 280X, and these are the 4 main major features we witnessed. By far the strongest feature was glorious Syrtis Major on the western side and below it at the south pole was big Hellas -a highland. The North Polar Cap is very small but quite easily visible at this high power. Curving its way westwards was Sinus Sabeaus.

A brilliant and most pleasing night.

Aubrey.
The following user(s) said Thank You: dave_lillis, michael_murphy, jmckeon

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10 years 8 months ago #100517 by flt158
Replied by flt158 on topic Mars on Good Friday
Good to hear from you, David. Perhaps you can have some time on Mars yourself some time soon. It is my favourite planet at present.
I should have said for first time observers of Mars that the dark features I observed last night were Syrtis Major and Sinus Sabeaus. I hadn't seen Syrtis Major since September 2003 when Mars was closest to the Earth for all time -less than 35 million miles away. This time it appeared almost black on the equator, and Sinus Sabeaus was a dark curved line heading for the eastern limb. The bright features were the very small North Polar Cap in the 1 o'clock position, and Hellas was very large on the southern limb -bigger and brighter on the 7 o'clock position. It acted like a south polar cap.
As Mars is now steadily shrinking, our magnifications may increase beyond 300X. However, it will climb higher in the sky. Mars can take it. We should see Syrtis Major for another 5 or 6 days. I do have an old book written by Patrick Moore about Mars, and an observer called Christian Huygens observed Syrtis Major through a telescope back in 1659. Real history is amazing!

Aubrey.

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10 years 8 months ago #100521 by john5
Replied by john5 on topic Mars on Good Friday
Great views Mars last night Aubrey. Syrtis Major especially very impressive and jet black about 11.30pm.
Could mistake large area under it for South Polar Cap.

Much better through refractor but spotted some galaxies Virgo cluster through reflector so call it a draw!

John

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10 years 8 months ago #100522 by flt158
Replied by flt158 on topic Mars on Good Friday
Brilliant John. Valerie and I were looking at Mars at precisely the same time as you. The large bright area south of Syrtis Major is Hellas. Delighted you saw it. I hadn't observed it since 2003. I kid you not.
I find www.skyandtelescope.com a great help. It has a very fine Mars Profiler.

Aubrey.

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