Mars.
July 11, 2003 11:00 UT. South is up. Mars.
July 11, 2003 11:00 UT. South is up. I started at 4:00 a.m. with the MN56. At about 4:30 a.m., I decided that the seeing was good enough so I rolled the 10" SCT out. I used my CAT cooler for about 20 minutes. The view at 167x in the 10" SCT is much better than the view at 150x in the MN56.
The seeing was not that great, at best it was 5-6/10. The transparency was good. Another challenge was the light breeze. At least it was a light breeze instead of the usual gusty wind. The image required constant focusing; it kept fading in and out due to the poor seeing (or my SCT mirror was shifting). There were moments of steadiness. The dark rim around the southern polar ice cap is very prominent. There is something on the other pole that looks like a small ice cap. Mars is nearly fully illuminated. It was at least 40 degrees above the horizon.
We should be looking at 205 degrees longitude. The dark features on the right are MARE TYRRHENUM (upper) and MARE CIMMERIUM.(lower). MARE SIRENUM should be to the left. I briefly saw separation between MARE CIMMERIUM and MARE TYRRHENUM, but due to poor seeing, I was not quite sure it was there and decided not to sketch it.. I saw hint of PROPOUTIS (faint smudge in the lower left). I thought I saw Stymphalius Lacus, but it was not there often enough to make it into the sketch.
Mars July 17, 2003 12:00 UT. South is up. 10" SCT. 208x (12 mm Edmund RKE). longitude: 163 degrees