Re: [meteorite-list] Mars Odyssey PAULI Impressions / Humor Alert
Enjoyed reading about your Mars observations Pauli! I was doing exactly the same thing early this morning, at around 3.00am. :-)
Set the alarm on my mobile phone, positioning it right beside my head so I wouldn't sleep through it, and within 5mins of it trilling I was tiptoeing out into the darkness - don't want to disturb the neighbours in the flat above me - carrying my 4.5" reflector in one hand and a cup of steaming coffee in the other...
Because it's an ultra-basic no-frills model (actually, that's not strictly true, it's not a huge Dobsonian or a bits-everywhere equatorial, but it is a fully-fledged GoTo with the whole computer drive/handset shebangs, it's just that for quick looks I don't bother connecting all that up; it's a lot easier to just Pick-Up-And-GoTo :-) ) I was able to set it down and set it up in a minute or so, and after a quck focus-check on the Moon ("** that's bright!!!") I was zeroing-in on Mars itself, which was blazing like a drop of moonlit amber above the roofs of the houses on the other side of the street. Little bit of haze in the air, not enough to spoil things but just enough to stop the images in the eyepiece swimming around, so I took my first look...
In the 4.5" at 140x Mars was a very small, but very atractive, disc: pale orange/beige, with the south polar cap very prominent, looking like a tiny, shiny white button at the top of the disc. Most of the disc itself appeared blank, but I could make out Mare Sirenium to the top right and, to the left, slightly darker, the plain of Mare Erythraeum. (I'm claiming the blank area between the two as my first sighting of Solis Lacus, "The Eye Of Mars"). Yes, very nice, I thought, taking a sip of coffee, thank you Universe :-)
I stayed out there for an hour or so, savouring the view. Because Mars was so close to the rooftops it was swimming a lot in the eyepiece, as warm air currents rising off the houses distorted its image, and so for most of the time the Red Planet looked more like an Orange Blob, wibbling and wobbling, but in those wonderful moments of clear air, which I'm sure Bernd enjoyed too, Mars solidified before my eyes and was transformed into a sharp-edged pale ochre globe, with the polar cap shining like mother-of-pearl and the plains standing out from the disk as if they'd been drawn on it with a pencil. I couldn't see them directly, but it was anough to know that I was also looking straight at the mighty volcanoes of Tharsis.
Eventually Mars was just so low that it was literally boiling before my eys, so I picked up the scope and headed indoors and went back to bed, delighted with my views.
Looking forward to much more magnified views of Mars through the various telescopes which will assemble for my astronomical society's "Mars Watch" here on August 29th. We should have half a dozen or so scopes trained on Mars, assembled on a big school playing field, and are expecting several hundred people. The following night we're having a Mars Watch just for ourselves, out in the wilds, when we'll be able to take our time and savour the view without having to worry about well-meaning non-astronomers (and their kids... and dogs!) kicking tripod legs or insisting "I can't see it! Are you sure it's there?!" ;-)
Hope everyone's enjoying their views of Mars too!
Stu
[meteorite-list] Mars Odyssey PAULI Impressions / Humor Alert
Spent the afternoon getting ready for a night of skygazing and, especially, of Mars observing: Prelude: Reading ST issues June, July, August. Getting familiar with what I would be seeing on Mars (Mars maps in June issue). Computing the Martian Central Meridian for 22:00 / 23:00 / 24:00 U.T. Pondering over whether I should take my Martian meteorites out to the scope and show them their home planet. Give up that splendid idea because the garden has been watered yet. Action (but no satisfaction): :-( Set up my telescope in our driveway, need a compass because Polaris isn't out yet. Spirit level to get the tripod horizontal - lots of beer coasters. Polaris is out but the scope points elsewhere - same procedure as usual. Let's start adjusting the scope once again. I love it. It's slowly getting dark and the stars our out ... plus dozens of streetlights up and down the street ... plus cars with their headlights full beam to find out what that guy's doin' there in the middle of the night. One look at the Alkor-Mizar system, at Albireo and M13, another look into those streetlights and the night vision is gone, gone, gone ... My wife proposes carrying the 40-kg scope into the backyard. Is she crazy? OK, I pack up and carry everything behind the house ... and my slipped disk and my sciatic nerve are jubilating. Suddenly the lights go out in the living room. What an understanding wife. She knows that any stray light spoils my night vision. Ah, she really cares. .. does she? The front door is closed, the back door is closed. Ah, I see Mrs Pauli went off to bed. Something's dawning on me: This is not my day / night today / tonight ! Knock knock-knock ... knock-knock-knock-knock. OK. Time to set up the telescope a third time. But where's the pole star? Ah, I see behind my neighbor's tree, let's carry the scope a few inches further west. Yes, there we are but no pole star ... branches, branches, branches (no members of the Branch family though :-) Some more inches, ... clang! ... what's that. My wife's enormous terra cotta flowerpots. Let's move one of them - ouch my spinal cord ! Let's just find the approximate direction to the celestial pole. That will be good enough for Mars. Too lazy to use the level once again. A short hop to M13, then to M27 (Dumbbell Nebula). But where's Mars? ... Oh. I can detect it low in the east behind another neighbor's trees. Time to give up? Capitulation? It will take at least one more hour before Mr Martial Mars climbs high enough above those trees and that neighbor's house. OK. I'll vent and tell my buddies (ladies included) on the List. Maybe this helps and then, ... I'll be back at the scope and see if I can see: a) Rifts in the South Polar Cap b) Mare Acidalium should be on the CEM (32° for 22h UT). c) Directly below Mare Acidalium there will be Chryse d) Right below Chryse, there is the ascending chain of the following Martian features from right to left in my C-8: Mare Sirenum (at far right - close to the limb) - Solis Lacus - Aurorae Sinus - Margaritifer Sinus - Sinus Meridiani - Sinus Sabaeus e) Argyre between Aurorae Sinus and the Martian South Pole .. well, I think I'll be glad if I can recognize something white (pole cap), some orange patches and a few dark-olive green islands. Well, what if not ??? :-( Then there are Ron's beautiful online links and my four little Martians: Zagami - NWA 1068 - DaG 476 - NWA 998 They will comfort me before I doze off ... ;-) Bernd __ Meteorite-list mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
