Nice report, Patrick. Thanks, Joe ________________________________ From: Patrick Wiggins <paw@wirelessbeehive.com> To: utah astronomy utah astronomy listserve <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Sun, February 14, 2010 10:24:46 PM Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Mars tonight: Incredible! I got home from SLC late this evening and got a call from Bruce Grim suggesting I stop by his place to see Mars. He has a rather interesting way of observing planets. He points the scope in his observatory at the planet, installs a video camera in the scope and displays the image on a monitor next to the scope. Then he goes in his house and uses binoculars to view the monitor through the kitchen window. Well, I walked in the front door and casually glanced out the kitchen window and, bam!, even without binoculars I could plainly see the (south?) polar cap and Syrtis Major. Knowing how good it was on video we wondered what it would look like through the 200mm Bogdan so we jumped in my truck and raced to SPOC. Folks, I'm really not exaggerating when I say that neither Bruce nor I, in 40+ years of observing, have ever seen Mars as well as we saw it through the refractor. Even at 400X the seeing held steady. Truly incredible. Not even the great opposition of 2003 looked as good (probably because it was much lower in the sky then). There was even detail around the limb of the south polar cap. Even the north cap, though very tiny, could be seen (note, I may have my north and south reversed). I rang several people but only Roger Butz could make it over. I just wish there had been someone there who knew all the place names so we could put names to all the features we were seeing. Truly a good night, patrick _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php Visit the Wiki: http://www.utahastronomy.com