[AZ-Observing] Great view of Mars & Phobos

I got a great look at Mars and Phobos through the 24" at the Central AZ
Community College Observatory in Coolidge northeast of Casa Grande.  The June
Sky & Tel listed the ephemerides of greatest
elongations of Phobos and Deimos (thanks AJ).  Unfortunately,
Deimos was poorly placed behind the planet, but Phobos was visible at 9:20p (UT
4:20) 1.3 diameters east.  We used a piece of black masking tape over half the
eyepiece not touching the lense to cover up Mars.  Mars was so bright it shown
through the tape as dull blue making diameter distance estimates easy.  Phobos
was exactly where it was supposed to be as a very hard to see pinprick that
giggled with moving the scope.  I saw it twice and Dee saw it once in the short
10 minutes it was at eastern elongation.   No one else in our group saw it at
it raced away for its western elongation 3.5 hours later.

Mars was spectacular in the 24" F4.8.  At 210* from Central Meridian the most
prominent southerly features were the dark mares; Sirenum, Cimmerium, and
Tyrrhenum separated by the orange Hesperia.  Closer to the south pole were the
orange Phaethontis and whitish Eridania.  The equatorial and northern latitudes
were marked with two dark blue ovals; Stymphalius and Alcyonius Nodus.  The
north polar region showed the dark Utopia area with a hazy mid orange
Protonilus just to the east.  The dark features; Syrtis Minor and Mare
Hadriaticum were on the eastern cusp with hints of the Hellas Basin and Syrtis
respectively rising after them.

I had to quit early for family concerns (I've got a 15 month old daughter), but
it was my best observng of Mars at this opposition.

Bill Peters

A side benefit, Al Morton who runs the observatory, had also interviewed and
searched for the still unfound Stanfield Meteorite Fall of June 7, 1998.   If
his data significantly supplements or skews mine I might make one more go for
it.





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