Jump to content
  • Join the online East Midlands astronomy club today!

    With active forums, two dark sites and a knowledgeable membership, East Midlands Stargazers has something for everyone.

Mars 15/04/14


philjay

Recommended Posts

Despite the murky thin cloud, full moon in close proximity and low elevation, Mars was surprisingly stable last night.


 


I wanted to give the old HB pencils a run last night and images were stable enough so had a go with a combination of scopes to pick out stuff.


 


As expected the view through the 4" F15 was more stable than the Mak but both gave good accounts. The Mak was in the observatory and the F15 in the middle of the garden and I was flitting from one to the other.


 


All details on the image


 


The colour was added today from colour notes and memory. I did try to colour it last night but gave up because to use colour you need white light and I kept losing my night vision every time I tried to sketch


 


Filters were #80, #11/ #12 and no filters


 


mars150414.jpg


Link to comment
Share on other sites

Very nice sketch, you sure do seem to have managed to tease out a lot of detail. I need to try and stop down my big dob a bit to see if I can get more detail. I should imagine the views to be good through your 4" f15. 


Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks Mark. The detail doesnt come easy. I think I spent about 2 hours on this, (this being the 4th attempt).

Getting detail from mars visualy is a combination of alot of things, seeing stability, scope acclimation, using an observing chair and filters. When I first looked all I could see was Syrtis Major, the polar cap plus polar hood. Only by sitting and looking for ages does tge detail come out.

Mars I find is the most rewarding of the planets to view I find. Once you master it, you get a buzz

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fantastic sketch there Phil and you've picked out exactly the detail I got from imaging Mars last night. Brilliant job-not an easy task.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh yeah Phil I meant to say I have an image of Mars in the same orientation as your sketch with the same detail. If you want I can send to you and you can do a side by side comparison? Let me know if ya do :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ta folks, its not easy but its very rewarding not so much the act of producing a sketch but more from a viewing aspect.

Sketching trains you to actually observe the object instead of glancing at it then moving on to the next object. When conditions allow I will always set aside a couple of hours to just concentrate on one planet its amazing what you can see.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I totally agree. I've only got 3 sketches in my sketch book of clusters/asterisms but when I was doing them I found (sounds obvious when I'm writing it down!) that the more I looked the more I saw :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.