Mars and the Comets, 2008/1/3

[Dave Mitsky]

I journeyed to the Naylor Observatory on Thursday night to take a quick look at Mars. It was my first formal observing session of the new year and I ended up having one of my best views of the planet so far this apparition. The transparency was not the best that night and there was the usual wintertime Ski Roundtop light dome in addition to the local light pollution but the seeing was not bad at all. The temperature in the French Dome during the two hour long session was a balmy 23 degrees Fahrenheit.

After visiting some well-known winter deep-sky objects, I observed Comet 8P/Tuttle and the nearby spiral galaxy M74 through the 17-inch f/15 classical Cassegrain, but not in the same field of view of the 6477mm focal length instrument, of course. The periodic comet looked good at 162, 202, and 259x and was easily seen through the 5-inch f/5 finder scope. There wasn't even a hint of nearby M74 through the 5-inch. I could make out Comet 17P/Holmes naked-eye with averted vision but it was just a faint and unremarkable smudge through the 5-inch.

I used an Orion variable polarizing filter, a CC30M (magenta) filter, and Wratten #21 (orange), #25 (red), and #80A (light blue) color filters and magnifications of 162, 202, 249, 259, 324, 381, and 404x with the 17-inch f/15 classical Cassegrain working at full aperture. (I also employed a few of the eyepieces sans filters at first.) Using the variable polarizing filter with a 17mm Ploessl (381x) worked out well, as did a 26mm Ploessl (249x) with the #80A and CC30M filters stacked.

The "bland" side of Mars was facing the Earth during the session but Mare Sirenum, Mare Cimmerium, and Mare Tyrrhenum were easy to discern, as was the NPC. I may have detected some limb haze too. If it hadn't had been so cold, I would've made a sketch.

Dave Mitsky

[dreric1kansas]

Dave and all

I was itching to go to POwell Observatory as it was the first good night in several nights.
comet Tuttle (my first obs of it) looked fine and seemed to have a ghostly greenish coma with a nice nucleus. But those green comets are hard to see eventhough this is the closest approach to Earth. Comet Holmes (could still with Naked eye) was nice but remarkable like Tuttle hard to see in telescope.
Mars (canyon stood out even more with the filter) and Saturn (the ring is something else) were spectacular. A galaxy or two and more stuff and good company.
A couple nights later I saw Quadrantids.
If you have comet pics you want to post on my blog, send me one with informtion (see blog)
Fine night.

::
I journeyed to the Naylor Observatory on Thursday night to take a quick look at Mars. It was my first formal observing session of the new year and I ended up having one of my best views of the planet so far this apparition. The transparency was not the best that night and there was the usual wintertime Ski Roundtop light dome in addition to the local light pollution but the seeing was not bad at all. The temperature in the French Dome during the two hour long session was a balmy 23 degrees Fahrenheit.

After visiting some well-known winter deep-sky objects, I observed Comet 8P/Tuttle and the nearby spiral galaxy M74 through the 17-inch f/15 classical Cassegrain, but not in the same field of view of the 6477mm focal length instrument, of course. The periodic comet looked good at 162, 202, and 259x and was easily seen through the 5-inch f/5 finder scope. There wasn't even a hint of nearby M74 through the 5-inch. I could make out Comet 17P/Holmes naked-eye with averted vision but it was just a faint and unremarkable smudge through the 5-inch.

I used an Orion variable polarizing filter, a CC30M (magenta) filter, and Wratten #21 (orange), #25 (red), and #80A (light blue) color filters and magnifications of 162, 202, 249, 259, 324, 381, and 404x with the 17-inch f/15 classical Cassegrain working at full aperture. (I also employed a few of the eyepieces sans filters at first.) Using the variable polarizing filter with a 17mm Ploessl (381x) worked out well, as did a 26mm Ploessl (249x) with the #80A and CC30M filters stacked.

The "bland" side of Mars was facing the Earth during the session but Mare Sirenum, Mare Cimmerium, and Mare Tyrrhenum were easy to discern, as was the NPC. I may have detected some limb haze too. If it hadn't had been so cold, I would've made a sketch.

Dave Mitsky

[Kaptain K]

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