Mars (10 Dec 2020)

 Mars, Planet, Solar System  No Responses »
Dec 112020
 

Mars is getting lower and lower in the west by sunset. I reconfigured the PTO so I could get some pictures of the planet while it still is above the trees after dark.

As you can see, Mars is quickly getting smaller as Earth leaves it behind. The image on the right was the one taken last night. Each image is taken by the same equipment and at the same scale. It is also, by pure coincidence, the same part of the planet.

As usual, south is up in these images. Even as small as the planet is, you can see how much smaller the southern polar ice cap has gotten as the Martian summer proceeds. The clouds forming the north polar cap are still present.

 Posted by at 15:19

Sucker hole Astronomy – Jupiter & Mars (24 Sep 2020)

 Jupiter, Mars, Planet, Solar System  No Responses »
Sep 252020
 

I spent last night repeatedly opening and closing the dome to counter the clouds. The clouds would open just long enough to convince me to open the dome, find a target, focus and start imaging. They would then slowly move back in prompting dome closure just to be safe.

Eventually though, I was able to piece together a series of Jupiter. Saturn was never visible through the gaps long enough to even start a set.

First up was Jupiter. It was already well past my meridian and closing on the western tree line before the planet made appearances through several gaps in the clouds. The GRS was just coming into view as well as the white spot indicating the newly discovered storm in the north temperate belt. It is expected that the material dredged up by the storm will react with solar energy and darken the belt as it spreads out to encircle the planet.

Jupiter
[(V)R:1259×1.21ms;
G:1254×1.12ms;
B:1245×1.79ms]

Mars was a little easier. The clouds broke open long enough to get one full series and the start of another before they finally brought the session to an close. The clouds forming the north polar hood are more apparent than in the image I took on the 2nd of Sept.

Mars
[(V)R:13725×0.17ms;
G:13685×0.27ms;
B:13678×0.50ms]

The Mars illustration is courtesy of WinJUPOS.
 Posted by at 19:23

Mars (02 Sep 2020)

 Mars, Planet, Solar System  No Responses »
Sep 032020
 

I am pretty sure this image of Mars has the most detail of any I have taken. The atmosphere was quite steady when the planet cleared the trees. As indicated in the illustration, this image is south up.

The large dark area running north from the equator is Syrtis Major which is now known to be a large shield volcano. The dark volcanic basaltic rock gives the area the dark appearance.

Mars [(V)R:6865×0.21ms;
G:6857×0.29ms;
B:6865×0.65ms]

The Mars illustration is courtesy of WinJUPOS.

Mars’ northern hemisphere winter solstice was on September 02. Just like here on Earth, the northern hemisphere winter solstice signals the start of summer in the southern hemisphere. If you compare this image with the one taken on the 17 of August, you will notice the south pole ice cap is slightly smaller as the summer weather sublimates the ice.

Of course, the northern hemisphere solstice means winter is starting there and the northern ice cap will start growing. It will grow due to precipitation from clouds that form over the pole. These clouds are called a polar hood. There is just a hint of the blue clouds along the northern edge of the planet.

 Posted by at 20:57

August planets (17 Aug 2020)

 Jupiter, Mars, Planet, Saturn, Solar System  No Responses »
Aug 212020
 

Right now there are three naked eye planets easily seen in the evening / night time sky. Jupiter and Saturn are visible as the sky darkens after sunset. Jupiter will be a bright enough object that it can be viewed during dusk. Saturn will be just east of Jupiter, a little lower, noticeably fainter and will need a darker sky to be seen. Ultimately, Mars will join the other two in the sky around 2200(CDT) when it rises above the eastern horizon.

These pictures were all taken on the evening of the 17th / morning of the 18th of August. Jupiter and Mars are oriented south up; Saturn is north up.

When this image was taken, the GRS was just about to rotate around to the far side of the planet. Just coming on to the near side above the North Temperate Belt (NTB) is the small dark shadow of the Jovian moon Europa. The moon is visible but very hard to identify as it is also in front of the NTB but almost directly below the GRS. To ID the cloud bands see Jupiter’s belts and zones.

The image shows Jupiter with its cloud bands and zones. The great red spot is on the left upper side of the planet and is close to rotating around to the far side. A small sharply defined black spot is at the lower right of the planet denoting the shadow of the Jovian moon Europa.

Jupiter, GRS & Europa’s shadow
[(V)R:1211×1.57ms;
G:1260×1.70ms;
B:1260×2.91ms]

Right now, Saturn is in the portion of its orbit where we are looking down on the ring plane. This is why I rotated the image 180° from the view in the telescope. Now we see the rings as they truly are. Our view of the upper side of the rings will remain until March 2025 when we will see the ring plane edge on. At that time the rings will be nearly invisible. Saturn will continue on in its orbit and our view will shift to the underside of the rings for the next 14.5 years.

If you look closely, you can see a bit of Saturn’s shadow on the far side rings and you can see some of the planet’s disk through the Cassini division and just a bit of it below the rings.

The image shows Saturn with the orientation looking down on the rings. The planet shows subtly colored bands in the atmosphere and a a bit of the planet's shadow on the far side of the rings. There is also a hint of the planet visible both through the main gap in the rings as well as a tiny amount of the planet visible below the rings.

Saturn
[(V) R:3597×2.81ms;
G:3591×7.27ms;
B:1826×16.32ms]

The most obvious object in this image of Mars is the southern ice cap. There is a distinct notch in the lower edge. Mars was at perihelion on the 3rd of August. The southern hemisphere season is heading towards summer and the ice cap we see is starting to shrink.

This image shows the rusty colored planet in the normal orientation with south up. The planet's bright white southern ice cap is not only plainly visible but has an obvious notch in the lower edge. The upper portion of the planet is much darker and with more complex surface markings than the lower.

Mars
[(V) R:6838×0.21ms;
G:6837×0.35ms;
B:6832×0.73ms]
This image is an accurate illustration of Mars matching the picture taken of Mars through the PTO's telescope. The illustration shows Mars' equator, central meridian and a line showing the planet's axis of rotation with North indicated.

The Mars illustration is courtesy of WinJUPOS.

For an explanation of caption information see exposure data.

 Posted by at 21:23

Here’s Mars 2020’s target. (02 Aug 2020)

 General Commentary, Mars, Planet, Solar System  No Responses »
Aug 032020
 

With the Mars 2020 spacecraft on it way, I thought it would be good time to take a look at where its going. Actually, I couldn’t take any other useful images with a nearly full Moon. At these times the planets are the only targets that can reliably compete with the sky’s brightness.

This image was taken on the morning of 02 August when the Moon was 98% lit and Mars 86%.

This is an image of Mars taken through the PTO's telescope. The planet is shown south up in the standard orientation provided by a Newtonian reflector telescope. Of course this view puts the bright white southern ice cap at the top. The rest of the planet is a rusty orange color with large areas of dark surface markings.

Mars
[(V) R:2736×0.17ms;
G:2738×0.26ms;
B:2739×0.60ms]
This image is an accurate illustration of Mars matching the picture taken of Mars through the PTO's telescope. The illustration shows Mars' equator, central meridian and a line showing the planet's axis of rotation with North indicated.

The Mars illustration is courtesy of WinJUPOS.

The southern polar ice cap is obviously visible. The slightly brighter area in the upper right quadrant is the Hellas basin, reportedly the largest impact basin in the solar system. Below that is the dark Syrtis Major region that extends down past the equator. Jezero crater, the targeted landing site for the Perseverance rover, is all the way down the dark Syrtis Major formation on the left side of the point.

I am really looking forward to Mars’ 2020 opposition on the 13th of October. Right now Mars’ apparent angular size on the sky is 14.7 arc seconds. At opposition it will appear 22.3 arc seconds wide, a 51% increase in size.

For an explanation of caption information see exposure data.

 Posted by at 18:30
 Older Entries  Newer Entries