I've been itching to try my new Celestron filter for Mars so I drove up to the parking lot on Mt Pinos on new moon Wednesday[6-13) for viewing DSOs and planets.
First, some background. While Mars will not be as close at the end of July as in the opposition of 2003, it will still be quite spectacular in the night sky, outshining Jupiter.
Mars exhibited a large dust storm in 2003 and my 16" dobsonian displayed it very prominently while other similar sized instruments nearby could not. As it happens, there's another whopper of a storm on Mars now and our rovers on the surface are in sleep mode because the sunlight that powers their solar panels is obscured by clouds of dust. I was eager to observe Mars again but I wasn't able to stay the entire evening since I needed to be at work the following morning. I did enjoy some awesome views of multiple galaxies as the transparency and seeing was good with an overall average of 21.31 on the SQM at the zenith at midnight. Not great but good enough. Unfortunately, Mars never cleared the tree line as I departed the parking lot at 1:00am.It seemed to follow me down the road as I descended the mountain top and an hour later when I arrived in my driveway, it was prominent in the sky and the seeing to the naked eye was rock solid. I wish I could have reassembled the scope and placed the filter along with a 3.2mm eyepiece in the focuser but I needed to get some sleep.
If conditions permit, I may try again on Friday or over the weekend although Mt Pinos becomes a zoo with flocks of tourists driving thru the observing site at all hours. Nearby Lockwood valley isn't much better but for different reasons. Anyhow, if I can get the scope out, I will and report on the filter in part 2...
First, some background. While Mars will not be as close at the end of July as in the opposition of 2003, it will still be quite spectacular in the night sky, outshining Jupiter.
Mars exhibited a large dust storm in 2003 and my 16" dobsonian displayed it very prominently while other similar sized instruments nearby could not. As it happens, there's another whopper of a storm on Mars now and our rovers on the surface are in sleep mode because the sunlight that powers their solar panels is obscured by clouds of dust. I was eager to observe Mars again but I wasn't able to stay the entire evening since I needed to be at work the following morning. I did enjoy some awesome views of multiple galaxies as the transparency and seeing was good with an overall average of 21.31 on the SQM at the zenith at midnight. Not great but good enough. Unfortunately, Mars never cleared the tree line as I departed the parking lot at 1:00am.It seemed to follow me down the road as I descended the mountain top and an hour later when I arrived in my driveway, it was prominent in the sky and the seeing to the naked eye was rock solid. I wish I could have reassembled the scope and placed the filter along with a 3.2mm eyepiece in the focuser but I needed to get some sleep.
If conditions permit, I may try again on Friday or over the weekend although Mt Pinos becomes a zoo with flocks of tourists driving thru the observing site at all hours. Nearby Lockwood valley isn't much better but for different reasons. Anyhow, if I can get the scope out, I will and report on the filter in part 2...
