Journal vikrant's Journal: Mars observation @ 2003 oppsition (closest) 1
Last night, Ajay, Sagnik, Neelam and me had our first view of Mars this month through Ajay's 8" Meade LX200 (with magnification reaching over 300). It was amazing, for the first time in my life have I seen mars so clearly and with albedo features on it visible so sharply. Syrtis Major, Mare Sirenum, Mare Serpentis (see this map) were very prominent. South polar ice cap was very bright and literally seemed shining, it has shrunk to about half the size we observed on 28th May this year.
Could actually make out the rotation of Mars as Syrtis Minor went out of the view toward west and Mare Sirenum came into the view from east during the 2-3 hours observation session.
We all tried sketching Mars, which lead to a very fulfilling experience. Will post the sketches soon.
more mars adventures (Score:1)
Had another observing run on 29th aug. Had setup the telescope early this time, Priyanka had come all the way from Kanpur to observe Mars with us. I stayed up the whole night to sketch mars every 30 to 40 minutes, simply wanting to get a feel. South polar ice-cap must have reduced in size since our observation on 21st, it was not as prominent this time. An animated gif of the sketches showing the rotation of Mars can be viewed here [gotovega.com] (475 KB)