July 30, 2003 Mars Sketch

Hi,

I had very good seeing conditions for Mars this morning. Image held like a rock up to stupidly high powers- 487x and 545x.

The receding Southern Polar Cap showed an irregular edge. The small bulge was brighter than the rest of the cap as well as what seemed to be a dark line running half way through it. Syrtis Major showed as one of the darker regions, darker than I remember seeing it in previous observations. These were by far the most prominent features.

Many other features appear south, top in this drawing, of Mare Sirenum and Meridani Sinus, but I am not up on the names at the moment and have not consulted a map as of yet.

I also used the new Mars 2003 filter at powers up to 375x. Image contrast was pretty good.

Sol Robbins

Attached Image:

Always a pleasure to view your sketches!

Tim

Nice sketch, Sol!

Like your sketching style too -- sort of 'tarantulan' -- all those spikey bits makes Mars look spooky or haunted or something

You're truly the artist us newbies would like to aspire to be, Sol! What an incredibly beautiful sketch which I thoroughly enjoy.

Ron B[ee]

Awesome! I enjoy your sketches more than the fantastic webcam or CCD images, as it more resembles what I see in the EP. Although I cant pull out even half of the amazing detail you see, simply outstanding.

Sol,

An excellent observation of Mars. You have captured pretty much what I noted on the 27th, except that Deltoton Sinus and Syrtis Major appear to have irregular edges (projections) over their following borders. The names of the albedo features visible can be found in my notes for my Mars observation on the 27th. I look forward to your future observations.

Happy Mars Observing!

Carlos