Well this week was the 2014 Mars opposition, like the Olympics a bi-annual event in the life of amateur astronomers. I set up the scope under so-so skies the actual night of opposition (Apr 8th) but struggled to place Mars in the scope's field of view (spotting scope really needed to be reset, the tube was fully racked to the side I needed to move towards). So, with a first quarter Moon beginning its westward slide to the horizon I opted to grab a few frames from it craggy landscape.
The northern hemisphere sported Plato, always a favorite, but a little past prime as the sun had climbed high enough across its plains to remove most of the contrast shadows provide. The images were best without a Barlow, showing a wider section the the Moon's landscape. A little east of Plato the "Alpine Valley" was an interesting feature, an 80 mile long cleft amid the lunar version of the Alpine mountains. Another cool landmark was Mons Piton, a solitary mile-high mountain projecting from Mare Imbrium (Sea of Showers) a bit farther south and east of the Vallis Alpes.
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| Plato on the norther shores of Mare Imbrium |
The southern hemisphere this evening was the normal chaotic mix of craters upon craters. Among the scared landscape two caught my attention. One was huge Clavius, always demanding attention because of its impressive size, nearly the distance from Frederick MD to the eastern shore of Maryland. Being an ancient crater its floor is beat up with subsequent smaller impact craters, a couple of which were easily seen. In contrast the other standout is one of the newer significant lunar features - crater Tycho was in sharp contrast and very eye-catching. Probably no other feature has such a remarkable change in appearance from its local dawn to high noon. Here as the sun just come above the horizon the steep walls and its nearly mile high central peak are evident. Less than a week from now it will be the ray system that draws attention from the observer, especially during the eclipse set to happen early next Tuesday morning.
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| Tycho at top center, large Clavius to the left |
The following night I took some time to correct the finder scope and made another attempt at Mars. Being an aphelic apparition there is never a lot that one can hope to see with a modest 6" reflector. But throughout my astrophotography career Mars had always been one target that I could never capture through the scope. Always not at opposition, or too small when at opposition - it rarely presents itself favorably and never as consistently as Jupiter, Saturn, and Luna. But this evening I did manage to get it on screen, a clear disk with even hints of a polar cap. So I ran a few AVI to see what I could get, a couple with blue and green filters. Sadly, the processing revealed a very uninspiring result. Part of it is that clearly the "boring" side of Mars was showing, mainly plains without any significant albedo features. But even so the polar region was very mushy, more of a suggestion of its presence than a confirmation. So, the scope will need to be checked again, make sure I have the best mirror alignment possible, and then hope for another clear night with maybe a more fascinating central meridian available in the next couple of weeks. But - even as inferior as it is - I can at least say I now have Mars on film.
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| Mars with a small polar cap at about 5 o'clock |
