[AZ-Observing] Mars This Morning

I don't like getting up at 4:00, either.  That's what it takes to get a
good look at Mars these days, though.  I left the scope out to ensure that
it cooled down (or heated up) to ambient conditions.  Seeing was quite
good, to my surprise.

The planet's disc is currently 12" across, which translates to an apparent
size of more than 1 degree at 350x, which is where I began.  The seeing
was actually good enough for 640x (11mm Plossl and 5x Powermate in my 10")
to show more detail.  Syrtis Major was just rotating around the limb, and
some dark extensions radiated from it toward the terminator.  Mars is
currently only 87% illuminated, and that terminator is beautiful, even
though there are no craters visible.  The south polar cap is huge, and a
dark ring separates it from the rest of the planet.  This feature shows up
in a recent Webcam image by Eric Ng
(http://www.ort.cuhk.edu.hk/ericng/mars_200305292122_eric.jpg).

At magnitude -0.7, Mars is already the brightest object in the sky, three
months before opposition!

Weather was interesting as well this morning.  The dewpoint was a sticky
58F, and a small thunderstorm flashed lightning to the south.  The radar
image put it directly over our Vekol site.  Hope the quasi-monsoon gets
out of here soon.

Tom

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