I got up around 4:00 EDT this morning to observe Mars. The forecast had looked very promising, but when I walked outside I was hit with a hot, wet blanket. The humidity was overpowering, and dew collected instantly on every exposed surface. I had intended to compare the views through my TV-102 and my Oracle (now that I have them both on EQ mounts), but I decided to simply see what I could with the 102 before everything dewed over.
I did all of my observing at 220x with a 4mm Radian. The instadjust and I have sort of a love/hate relationship, but this time it was clearly a wonderful asset. The combination of instadjust and pupil guide served as a dew shield for the eyepiece; my other Naglers & Plossls simply dewed over as soon as I removed their dustcaps.
I only got in about fifteen minutes of sketching before the objective dewed completely over and I gave up. In that time, I managed to scribble in the major outlines visible through a #21 filter. The polar cap looked like it had eroded around the edges a bit since I last saw it, and there was less limb brightening (in the unfiltered view) than I have been seeing. There was at least one circular patch that appeared to be a dust could, and there was another larger area where Hellas should have been that seemed to be a muddle of orange, with a lighter region in its center. I don’t know if the lighter region was actually Hellas, a dust cloud, or just more limb-brightening cloud cover, because I didn’t get the chance to see it with anything other than the #21 in place (I would have liked to try an 80A or unfiltered view to get a better identification).
For what it’s worth, my sketch can be found here.
Note that I did not get a chance to fill in the details (and there were some) in the large dark region at center before everything dewed over. I simply made it a uniform gray on my sketch, but I remember seeing some more subtle shadings in this region.
Between the oppressive humidity and the awful mosquitoes, last night left me wishing for the clear, frigid nights of January again. However, it isn’t every day that one gets to see Mars at 17.4 arc-seconds, so I’m glad I went out, even if only for a brief look. With the possibility of major dust storms looming, I’ll continue to take every opportunity to observe.
Clear skies to all,
Neil