Viewing Mars

[Solanum]

Being relatively new to the hobby, I got up early the other morning (24th) to view Mars through my scope for the first time. I have read that it is commonly the most disappointing planet to view so I wasn't expecting too much.

I could see a couple of darker features, by deduction from the pictures in AS&T (central meridian given as 135 degrees) the most distinct was Mare Sirenum. The higher latitudes (North?) were also noticeably darker. Considering that the moon was fairly close and the seeing was pretty poor I was reasonably happy with that.

So my question is: what features can I expect to see with my scope when the seeing is reasonable?

[Dennis]

Hi Sol

There is a tradition in planetary viewing saying that the more experience we gain in viewing planets, the more we begin to see any detail that the altitude, size of planetary disc and seeing conditions provide.

From personal experience, this seems to be true. With the same instrument, I can now see more details and features on planets such as Mars, Jupiter and Saturn because my eye/brain is better “trained” to be able to see the subtle details, whereas previously, I was looking for big, bold features.

Cheers

Dennis

[Astro78]

That's a very interesting comment Dennis.

I read once of a woman who had gained her full eyesight after being blind her entire life, believe she was around middle age. Anyway her brain was unable to distinguish between almost anything, she literally couldn't tell the difference between a glass of water and a fridge. This was years afterwards.

[Dennis]

I interpreted this traditional “astro saying” as being based on the predominant use of our eyes in the daytime to distinguish bright, colourful and high contrast scenes, using stereo vision. When confronted with a new low contrast, Cyclops-like view, shimmering in an “unnatural” eyepiece field, this takes some getting used to before we can begin to see the subtle details on the planets.

It is also quite amazing to witness the incredible spectrum of responses at public star parties; some people have a “wow” experience and articulate it very loudly, others seem to be quite unimpressed and just shuffle on.

Cheers

Dennis

[iceman]

I think you're right Dennis, and sometimes that boils down to people's expectations as well.

Everard you should definitely just keep looking. More details will pop out at you the more frequently you observe and the better you get at observing. Also don't forget that local conditions will play a huge part from night to night.

The seeing and transparency on any given night, as well as the low altitude of Mars for us in mid-southern latitudes, as well as the small angular size of Mars this apparition, means that very fine detail will be extremely difficult to resolve - unlike Jupiter which rose to overhead in June!

But keep practising and you'll find that you can start to pick out the main features immediately, and smaller/finer features will resolve themselves with practise and good seeing.

Also don't forget to ensure your scope is well collimated, and well-cooled to give you the best viewing you can get.

[Solanum]

Oh, I definitely agree about observation improving with practice. I can tell that already over the last year (nearly) that I've had my scope. Practise makes perfect!

With three small kids and being busy at work this time of year my oportunities for early morning (or late night for that matter) viewing are very limited so I want to make the most of them. Seeing was very poor the other morning and Mars had it's least interesting face to earth, so I know I will see more another time. I guess I was wondering which of the features I might potentially be able to see with my scope, given the low altitude etc. (ice caps for instance?). I know that is hard to judge as there are so many factors at play.

PS. we rarely get to dew point in summer here, so I just leave the scope out under the veranda overnight to have it nice and cool in the morning (when I also put the fan on).