>Most of this morning the northern third and southern quarter of Arizona >was cloudy, but Phoenix experienced a clear sky from horizon to horizon. >The dewpoint was 62F with corresponding bad transparency, but the seeing >permitted a magnification of 350x on the red planet. > >The central meridian at 2:30 a.m. these days is about 15 degrees. This >puts Sinus Sabaeus toward the gibbous limb, and Mare Erytrhraeum near the >center. I have to admit that albedo features on Mars do not excite me as >much as dynamic features such as those on Jupiter. I am learning that >Mars is dynamic, though. There were no obvious clouds apparent, but the >usual haze on the "non-gibbous" limb showed up brightly. The South Polar >Cap has been interesting to follow since April. It has shrunk noticeably >since my last time out (yikes, over a month). An coordinate grid overlay >sequence posted on the 'marsobserver' group shows it shrinking from a >latitude of 60 degrees south to greater than 70 degrees south during that >period. > >One part of the cap has extremely high albedo, appearing overexposed even >to the visual observer. Near the gibbous limb is a small gray notch in >the cap. This feature is saturated on every image of Mars that gets >posted. Speaking of images, the visual view was a refreshing change from >a month of virtual viewing of terrific images by Grafton, Parker, Peach, >et al. While all of those images show striking detail, none of them >begin to convey the experience of actually looking at Mars through the >eyepiece. Again, visual observing rules. > Tom I too was up this AM (3- 4 ) looking at Mars with my C-8. Seeing must have been better for Tom as I tried several eyepieces and "ALL" my filters one at a time but could not do much to improve the view. The polar cap is still large, but as Tom mentioned, smaller than a month ago. The size of the disk has increased noticeably and so has the brightness. I could not see any structure other than the polar cap (my mind was trying to tell me I was seeing something, but if it was indeed actually there, it was right on the threshold). While I was in the mountains over the weekend and set up to observe Mars with my 6" refractor, I was teased Friday night with clear skies which then clouded over before Mars appeared and continued with a thunderstorm Saturday night. I have become spoiled in Arizona. I'm originally from upstate NY and recall the wonderment in finding a clear night once every few months. In AZ except during July and August, most nights are clear and I tend to take clear nights for granted. Since I have gotten my 6" refractor I think I have put a curse on the sky. I think it may be fall before I really get to use it on Mars. Jeff -- Jeff Hopkins HPO SOFT ************************************************************** Phoenix, Arizona Atlanta, Georgia 7812 West Clayton Drive 12170 Boxwood Circle Phoenix, AZ 85033-2439 U.S.A. Alpharetta, GA 30005 U.S.A. (623) 849-5889 (Fax) (770) 619-3322 (Phone/Fax) www.hposoft.com dataman.home.mindspring.com 4th Dimension Developer FileMaker Pro Expert BASIC/C/C++ Programmer/Web Site Developer -- See message header for info on list archives or unsubscribing, and please send personal replies to the author, not the list.