Observing Report -- Montebello OSP -- 22 October 2005 (Saturday)
The Moon would come up at around 10:00, so it wasn't to be a long
night. But Mars wouldn't care. I've observing Mars as frequently as
possible since Calstar. This may well be the last great opposition of
Mars in my lifetime, so I don't want to miss it.
It was a pretty good turnout for a short night -- many of the usual
suspects were there: Lance Boehm, Dennis Steele, Michael Swartz,
Sander Pool, along with Akkana Peck and Dave North; and a couple of
others that I didn't know.
Because it was MB, I didn't try for any faint stuff. Just a few
doubles and a couple of asteroids, while waiting for Mars to get up
high enough. Details on non-Mars objects below.
I started observing Mars around 10:00. I was using the 12.5" f/5
Portaball on an EQ platform. Typically I used a 7mm Nagler with a #25
red filter (Orion) or a 5mm Tak LE with no filter (the dang Tak EP
threads don't fit standard filters!). That's 226X and 317X
respectively.
The seeing was pretty darn good. The South polar cap was very small,
but still visible, and very bright white. There was a much larger oval
light area in the North (not the polar cap, which I think is out of
view) -- probably clouds. Sinus Sabaeus and Sinus Meridiani were very
evident, and often also the North-pointy-thing that follows Sinus
Meridani (what's that thing called? Margaritaville, Margaritifer,
something like that. ;-) I thought I could see Aurorae Sinus as
well. Most of the southern half of the disk was darker than the
northern half, but there was a light indentation just coming into view
in the South. I thought it might be Argyre. There was also a very
faint darker blob (only apparent about 25% of the time) coming around
on the North -- maybe Niliacus Lacus???
To me, this is one of the more interesting sides of Mars -- better than
the more obvious "thong" thing that has just passed out of view (ridden
into the sunset?).
It was an excellent night for Mars. I observed it for over an hour and
drew a sketch.
Mars! Joe Bob says: check it out! If not now, when?
Other Stuff;
42 Isis -- Asteroid currently in Microscopium -- pretty easy location,
not far South of Omega Cap. I estimated it as a little brighter than a
nearby mag 11 star.
Epsilon Sagittae -- dbl star -- a very wide easy double; split at 45X.
Supposed to be splittable in binocs, but I couldn't do it with my
10X50s. Nice color contrast (yellow and white or pale blue). I didn't
notice until I looked it up in Burnham's later, but it is a triple, and
the third component should be visible -- need to go back for another
look.
HIP 96688 -- dbl star in Sagittae -- not a target, but I noticed it in
the same FOV as Epsilon Sge, and it split easily at 45X (but much
closer than Epsilon). Anonymous double on SA2000, but SNP says it must
be HIP 96688; apparently not a Struve.
Theta Sagittae -- dbl star -- fairly tight dbl at 93X; about two
magnitudes different, yellow and red; PA is NNW, maybe 320 to 340
degrees.
23 Thalia -- Asteroid currently in Cetus -- Forms an almost-square with
three stars near HIP 3609. About the same magnitude as the three stars
of the "square", so about 10.5.
-- end
Received on Mon Oct 24 11:47:20 2005