Observing Mars' Moons

[Glenn Dawes]

Hi guys,

I was wondering if anyone has had experience with observing the Moons of Mars. I was shown one of them (don't even know which one) many years ago, but that was through a large Dob at a SPSP (maybe 20") but don't remember when.
I would like to know:
How large was the instrument / magnification?
Did you see both Phobos and Deimos?
How easy were they, was a filter tried?
And if possible when? right down to the date/hour if possible? so I could look at how close to opposition Mars was and where the Moon(s) were relative to a greatest elongation (and how far from the planet).

Regards

Glenn

[ving]

hi glenn,
steve masey has photographed (imaged whatever) the moons of mars but i've not heard of anyone seeing them visually... i am sure it can be done though with enough aperture.
I'd give it a try but its a bit late for it now :(

[Robert_T]

Hi Glenn, there was an article in Australian S&T around the time of the last opposition on how to observe the martian moons and the times of best elongation when to see them. Sorry, but can't recall which issue. You might also try the mars observers group on yahoo. Just search for "mars observers" using google or similar. There were a few posts with people having observed or imaged the moons late last year.

cheers,

[Glenn Dawes]

Hi Ving,
Thanks for mentioning Steve Masey. Is he a member of the group?
Also, I would love to see an image from you but it might be a little late.

Regards

Glenn

[Glenn Dawes]

Hi Robert,
Yes, I remember the S&T article, it would have been late 2005 for the last opposition was in Oct. 05 (I think). It is really only practical to observe the moons at opposition but I've seen similar articles from S&T previously (having been a subscriber for 30 years you go through a lot of Mars oppositions).

I had problems finding Mars Observers group on yahoo. Searching under 'Mars' didn't seem to work - do you have an address?

Thanks

Regards

Glenn

[shelly]

Is this the one?

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/marsobservers/

[Robert_T]

yes that'sthe one !

[33South]

Hi Glenn

Steve is "VideoGuy" in this forum. I recall talking to him about imaging the moons of Mars a while back. He said it can be done with the GSTAR-Ex video camera for example because it has an inbuilt masking feature to selectively mask out the glare from big red.

[ving]

check out steves thread here:
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=4639