observer’s log
onds across, he observed much fine detail.
Even though Mars was still several weeks from opposition, Maurizio Di Sciullo of Coconut Creek,
Florida, was able to capture a staggering amount of detail in these CCD images. Revealed here
are numerous cloud and haze formations — including the Syrtis Blue Cloud (arrowed), promi-
nent in the left image. Sciullo used a Starlight Xpress HX-516 CCD camera with a 10-inch f/8 Ex-
celsior Optics Newtonian reflector for these Mars shots.
observer’s notebook By Gary Seronik
Mars Takes Center Stage
A
s Mars approached opposition
in late April and moved from the
early-morning to the late-evening
sky, it attracted more and more observers.
Particularly prominent during this ap-
parition have been numerous white
clouds and haze formations. It is a rare
night of viewing with my 6-inch New-
tonian when Mars presents a cloud-free
disk. Although Martian atmospheric fea-
tures are best seen with a blue filter, I
have found that the evening clouds
(those on celestial west, or the planet’s
“preceding” limb) are plainly visible even
without filtering.
With his 8-inch f/7.5 Newtonian, Car-
los Hernandez of Pembroke Pines, Flori-
da, noted numerous cloud formations on
124 July 1999 Sky & Telescope
April 2nd as he sketched the planet while
using a light blue filter. “A very bright
cloud was visible over the Chryse region
apparently connected to a similar cloud
over Tharsis,” Hernandez comments. (For
a map of the Martian surface, see the
April issue, page 106.)
Of course, atmospheric seeing condi-
tions play the biggest role in determining
how much Martian surface detail appears
in the eyepiece. Planetary observers live
for those all-too-infrequent nights of su-
perb seeing. Frequent Sky & Telescope
contributor Jeff Medkeff experienced one
of those rare nights last April 15th. Ob-
serving with a 10-inch Newtonian from
his home in southeastern Arizona, Med-
keff reports, “The view of Mars was extra-
ordinary — perhaps the best view I’ve
had since the 1982 opposition when I first
observed the planet with a telescope.”
Medkeff took advantage of the superb
conditions to sketch the planet’s surface
using a magnification of 375×. Even
though Mars appeared only 15.5 arcsec-
Using an 8-inch f/7.5 Newtonian reflector at
328×, Carlos Hernandez of the Association of
Lunar and Planetary Observers’ Mars section
made this sketch on April 2nd, when the
planet appeared 14.2 arcseconds across. Her-
nandez used a number of filters to bring out
various details on the Martian disk.
©1999 Sky Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.
“Ismenius Lacus was not only visible, but I
discerned its peculiar crooked end, which
was about 1⁄3 arcsecond across at the time.”
Occultation Delight
Thanks to a last-minute notice from the
International Occultation Timing Associ-
ation’s David Dunham, observers were
alerted to an occultation of a 7.5-magni-
tude star by the tiny asteroid 75 Eurydike
on the evening of April 2nd. Despite
poor weather prospects, S&T associate
editor Alan MacRobert and I, along with
MacRobert’s friend Eric Johansson, set
up to observe the event from Mac-
Robert’s suburban home in Bedford,
Massachusetts.
High clouds crept lazily across the sky
as the last of twilight melted away. Mac-
Robert set up his occultation timing
equipment — a shortwave radio and a
tape recorder — and readied his 12 1⁄2-
inch Newtonian inside his observatory
while Johansson and I used 8-inch Dob-
sonians to locate the target star, SAO
78480, in Gemini.
We watched anxiously as the WWV
radio time signal marked 7:44 p.m. East-
ern Daylight Time. Suddenly the golden
yellow star blinked out. Just as I began to
accept the fact that the star had complete-
ly disappeared from sight, it reappeared as
startlingly as it had vanished. Just like
that, I had witnessed my very first asteroid
occultation — a 3.1-second thrill.
For MacRobert, this was only his sec-
ond asteroid occultation timing in 14
tries since 1975! I certainly hope that I
won’t have to wait as long as MacRobert
did before I witness my second asteroid
occultation.