Mars, 28 Aug, 2003 Schwaar scope, 4.8 Nagler, 300X
Last night was the opposition, at about 3 am, but the sky was socked in. Tonight there were thin, high clouds, but with plenty of bare spots. I hoped the presence of the micro-droplets of water in the air would help to hold the atmosphere at a more constant temperature, and thus keep it still (as it sometimes does.)
Visually, detail popped into and out of focus, but paused long enough to leave an impression that I could draw. The sky haze reduced the contrast, so I needed a few seconds to discern details each time I looked from the eyepiece to the drawing, then back to the eyepiece. The drawing took about 15 minutes to complete.
The features shown in the drawing are largely upheld by the photograph of Mars shown here, that was taken from my observatory porch with the 7 inch, f/15 Maksutov and a 6mm orthoscopic eyepiece. Because of the low transparancy of the sky, the exposure was 1/4 sec (instead of the usual 1/8 or 1/15.)
In both the drawing and photo, a broken leading edge of the ice cap can be seen. As the dry-ice of Mars' south pole sublimates, its water ice crumbles (and probably melts as well. I'm imagining the circumpolar regions as a really cold tundra.
Here is the sky as I observed last night. Thanks to the monsoon, it's less than ideal, but Mars still punches through:
