A Short Report with a Mars Finale

[The Wave Catcher]

2022-11-17
21:25-23:20 CST

The skies were clear, winds were calm, and the temperature was 45 F (7 C). I brought my Astro-Tech AT80ED refractor telescope and my small Bresser Alt/Az mount out to get some quick viewing in since the weather forecast was for clouds the next several days. After a few scans of the sky, seeing conditions looked to be about perfect, 5/5.

Jupiter was high in the sky so I put in my Celestron 8-24 mm (70x-23x) Zoom eyepiece and set my telescope on it. The four Galilean moons were all on one side. I played with various eyepieces and I noticed that Jupiter was ever so slightly sharper with my 8 mm (70x) Plössl than at 8 mm on the zoom lens. 24 mm on the zoom looked very nice though. I was able to use my 6 mm Plössl and 2X Barlow (187x) on Jupiter this night. The two usual cloud bands were visible with the northern band being more pronounced with a noticeable festoon on it.

Next, I star hopped my way to Neptune with my 17 mm (33x) Plössl since it was very near Jupiter according to Stellarium. It appeared as a tiny blue “star” located between the stars HIP 116402 and HIP 116265. I bumped the power up to 187x with my 6 mm Plössl and 2X Barlow but Neptune just grew dimmer, not visibly larger.

I put my 17 mm eyepiece in and scanned my western skies in between my trees. No real target, just admiring.

I was about to quit when I noticed Orion rising between the houses to the southeast. The Great Nebula in Orion was barely above the roof but still looked beautiful in my 17 mm eyepiece. The Trapezium Cluster was bright and clear and I could see nebulosity even through my Bortle 8-9 skies.

I repositioned my telescope to catch Mars coming over my rooftop. It looked large even with my 17 mm eyepiece. As Mars rose, I switched to my 6 mm eyepiece and then added the 2X Barlow. This was the best I’d ever seen Mars! It appeared as a clear orange disk with an obvious dark region in the southeast quadrant. I will soon need to bring my larger telescope out to view it during opposition in a few weeks. I could see a smaller dark region in the opposite hemisphere with possibly some whitening from maybe an ice cap (05:10 UTC). I’ll have to check official sites later to see how much of what I “see” is my imagination. Seeing conditions were so good that I bumped it up to 224x using my 5 mm Astro-Tech eyepiece and 2X Barlow. The image still looked good and I confirmed the details I was seeing.

(Note: After coming indoors, I confirmed on both Stellarium and SkySafari that the details I saw on Mars were real, except for the whitening.)

I considered the awesome view of Mars the grand finale for the night and quit.

[Juno16]

I very much enjoyed your report Steve!

Your descriptions are very inspiring and motivating!

I very much wanted to get out last night to image or view, but just didn’t have the motivation. It was overcast until just after dark and cleared nicely just as my Clear Outside app predicted.
I’m sitting outside with my pups right now at 5 a.m. looking at the beautiful sparkling dark sky. I’m in a Bortle 7 zone, but it looks wonderful in and around Mars to the west.

Excellent descriptions in your report and sounds like you had special nights with great seeing. And, you were rewarded with some wonderful sights!

224x on Mars is a fabulous rare achievement for me and I’m glad that you were rewarded with a wonderful view!

My consolation was that I grilled one of the best steaks that I’ve had in years ( prime NY strip).

Thanks for your very nice read!

[Unitron48]

Great session and enjoyable read, Steve! Good that you could up the magnification and detect the surface features! Well done.

Dave

[helicon]

Terrific report Steve. Congrats on viewing those targets and on enjoying a night of excellent seeing so you could ratchet up the power on Jupiter and Mars. I also had a good view of Mars during its last opposition through both the 6" refractor and 10" Dob. I'm looking forward to the coming opposition of Mars in December. Congrats also on winning the VROD for the day!

[Makuser]

Hi Steve. A very nice observing report from you. It looks like you had a great time of it and got to enjoy some great planetary views as well as the Trapezium Cluster using your Astro-Tech AT80ED telescope. Thanks for your well written and fun read report Steve and congratulations on receiving the TSS VROD Award today.

[The Wave Catcher]

Thanks for the TSS VROD Award today and comments everyone!

I always log my sessions just help me remember what I saw and make me more observant of details. I seldom post them unless I was more excited than usual at what I saw.

[Bigzmey]

Nice session Steve and congrats on the VROD! Recently l also had my first view of Mars for this season with 80mm ED with similar level of details you have resolved.

[kt4hx]

Well done Steve and glad you got such a fine view with your 80mm. Congrats on the well deserved VROD.

[Unitron48]

Great session and enjoyable read, Steve! Good that you could up the magnification and detect the surface features! Well done.

Dave

And congrats on your VROD recognition

Dave

[John Baars]

Congratulations on the VROD!
Nice observations and nice report.
Thanks!

[Butterfly Maiden]

Good report Steve and congratulations on receiving the TSS VROD award for your effort.