Have been waiting for Mars to get to a decent elevation in the evening, so last night was my first real look for this opposition. Had been a good night, steady seeing (in contrast with Tuesday night which was a shocker!) and I had observed a number of tight double stars with my 106mm refractor. After 2100 Mars was around 35 degree elevation, and I put in a 4mm Delite for 175x. What a disappointment. One polar cap just discernible and nary a feature visible on the surface - perhaps a bit of "mottled shading". Increased power to 350x without improvement.
It may have been the boring face towards us, but the view was nothing like I observed at the 2003 opposition.
Any other thoughts?
Didn't you know about the global dust storm Mars is experiencing right now? Can take weeks, even months, for the dust to settle even after the big blow is over. Current event has been on for a few weeks now. Mars obviously knew we were looking and got camera shy
Below is the same sort of global dust event from 2001.
NASA has concerns for its rover on the Martian surface that the dust that settles on the solar panels will be too much for the rover to power up.
Last edited by mental4astro; 19-07-2018 at 11:14 AM.
Reason: typo
I had the same results last Saturday night John. The seeing was as good as it gets but all I could see was a polar cap and some washed out hints of surface variations.
This Opposition is shaping up to be a very different experience.
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Mekon
Have been waiting for Mars to get to a decent elevation in the evening, so last night was my first real look for this opposition. Had been a good night, steady seeing (in contrast with Tuesday night which was a shocker!) and I had observed a number of tight double stars with my 106mm refractor. After 2100 Mars was around 35 degree elevation, and I put in a 4mm Delite for 175x. What a disappointment. One polar cap just discernible and nary a feature visible on the surface - perhaps a bit of "mottled shading". Increased power to 350x without improvement.
It may have been the boring face towards us, but the view was nothing like I observed at the 2003 opposition.
Any other thoughts?
Was out with a few fellow club members last night and did an avi of Mars just for the sake of hoping that some detail may be showing through the dust. Seeing was not good, 5 / 10 maybe image on screen was warping around ceaselessly but there was a faint impression of darker areas contrasting with the bright orange disc.
Until the dust settles that's about as good as we're going to get this opposition.
Yep, Mars has been pretty disappointing over the last several weeks. I've had several chances to observe but this dust-storm has obliterated virtually all the albedo features that you would normally expect to be reasonably easy to see during a great opposition. I've seen little more than a yellowish-orange orb with occasional hints at limb brightening here and there and an occasionally visible south polar hood. Hoping for things to improve very soon.
Well, it's good to see I am not alone in my disappointment!
Thanks Alex for the information on the dust storms. Had I checked the planetary observation section of Cloudy Nights earlier I would have been prepared as this topic is discussed in detail there.
Jupiter & Saturn well make up for Mars - I have never seen the red spot so well defined as this year!
I wonder what the heck sort of storm produces such a massive global dust storm!?
My planetary science isn't all that flash, but I would have thought only something like a flaming big asteroid would have been large enough to stir up that much dust in such a thin a poorly heated atmosphere. I do know that these global dust storms happen every now and then, but all the same, what the blazes triggers such a massive event? This in itself is well worth knowing, and sharing, especially as the surface features are obscured, it makes for a good reason to expand our knowledge base.
Last edited by mental4astro; 19-07-2018 at 08:53 PM.
Thinking back to my fairly limited knowledge in planetary science, having strong winds doesn't require anything as drastic as an asteroid
Winds can pick up quite easily when there is a strong temperature difference on the planet. This is mostly discussed in relation to tidally locked planets around red dwarfs where one side is permanently very hot and the opposite side is permanently very cold (unless you have a case like that of Venus with a very thick atmosphere).
As to whether it is the same kind of mechanism that starts these on Mars I am not sure. I do remember reading a few years ago now that it is also because Mars has such a thin atmosphere that allows for these global storms to begin and last so long.
I believe one of the reasons that the Earth doesn't suffer from this is because of our thicker atmosphere which helps trap and slow down heat loss. The Earth also has VERY large heat reservoirs; the oceans.
Here is some info as to what causes the dust storms on Mars.
There still is a lot to learn,but this is the general consensus.
I found the article as it enplanes it better than I could.
I didn't see anything worth getting excited about a couple of nights ago (26 July) in terms of surface features. My consolation was seeing Phobos and Deimos, which I posted about elsewhere on this site!
Faint mottlings , a polar hood and maybe a polar cap, or was it Hellas? Couldn't tell for certain...
