Mars & Luna Get Together

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The Wave Catcher United States of America
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Mars & Luna Get Together

#1

Post by The Wave Catcher »


2023-02-27
20:20-21:12 CST (UTC -6)

I hadn’t been observing in a while, the skies were clear with some dust left over from the previous nights storms. And the temperature was 65 F. I brought my Astro-Tech AT80ED out to check out the near conjunction of the Moon and Mars. The Moon was at 0.56 waxing gibbous phase and Mars was just to its southeast. Jupiter and Venus were also approaching each other visually but they were already behind obscuring trees.

I observed the Moon for a while with my Stellarview 8 mm (70x), 82 degree eyepiece. Many features were illuminated along the terminator. Among the most notable were the Apennine Mountains, Aristillus crater and its debris field, Autolycus crater, the Alpine Valley, the Sea of Vapours, and the rugged crater field of the southern hemisphere. Another feature that I’m not sure that I’ve observed before was the Hyginus Rille, which was really standing out along with the crater Hyginus bisecting the rille.
I went ahead in my 4 mm (140x), 82 degree eyepiece for “in orbit” view of the Moon. The surface details were still sharp and I spent some good time “flying” over the lunar surface. I even found “Mickey Mouse), Müller crater near Ptolemaeus. Archimedes crater was just coming into daylight and the crater rim appeared to be two, concentric crater walls. I’m sure it was just a play of light with the steep crater wall that has partially collapsed.

I went ahead and took a look at Mars with the same power (140x) since it was only about 1.5 moon widths away. The Earth is rapidly pulling away from Mars so it is smaller than my last observation. I could still make out a dark region near the middle and a whitening in the southern hemisphere. Switching in my 15 mm (37x), 82 degree eyepiece I could see Mars and all of the Moon in the same field of view.

The Moon was the “star” of the show for this night so I turned my telescope back to Luna. I was mesmerized by the ultra-smoothness of the northern part of the Sea of Showers that was just coming into view at the foot of the Alps Mountains. I did observe a distinctive ridge of some sort between Mt. Piton and the crater Aristillus that I’ll to investigate.

It was fascinating to watch lunar details slowly emerging from the depths of darkness along the terminator in just 30 minutes time. Given that a lunar day is about a month long, one wouldn’t think you could see any changes in a short time.

It was a work night so I stopped observing for the night and brought in my little scope for the night.
Steve Yates

Astro-Tech AT102ED, 102 mm, F/7, ED Achromatic Refractor
Astro-Tech AT80ED, 80 mm, F/7, ED Achromatic Refractor
Bresser AR102s, 102 mm, f/4.5, Achromatic Refractor

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Re: Mars & Luna Get Together

#2

Post by Nakedgun »


~

Nice report on a short session. Weather will keep me out of the loop for a spell.


.
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Re: Mars & Luna Get Together

#3

Post by Makuser »


Hello Steve. A very nice report of your Mars and Lunar observing session using your Astro-Tech AT80ED telescope. It looks like you had a great time catching a lot of surface details on the moon and catching Mars too was icing on the cake. Thanks for your report Steve and the best of wishes for many clear night skies.
Marshall
Sky-Watcher 90mm f/13.8 Maksutov-Cassegrain on motorized Multimount
Orion Astroview 120ST f/5 Refractor on EQ3 mount
Celestron Comet Catcher 140mm f/3.64 Schmidt-Newtonian on alt-az mount
Celestron Omni XLT150R f/5 Refractor on CG4 mount with dual axis drives.
Orion 180mm f/15 Maksutov-Cassegrain on CG5-GT Goto mount.
Orion XT12i 12" f/4.9 Dobsonian Intelliscope.
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Re: Mars & Luna Get Together

#4

Post by messier 111 »


fine report , thx .
I LOVE REFRACTORS , :Astronomer1: :sprefac:

REFRACTOR , TS-Optics Doublet SD-APO 125 mm f/7.8 . Lunt 80mm MT Ha Doublet Refractor .

EYEPIECES, Delos , Delite and 26mm Nagler t5 , 2 zoom Svbony 7-21 , Orion Premium Linear BinoViewer .

FILTER , Nebustar 2 tele vue . Apm solar wedge . contrast booster 2 inches .

Mounts , berno mack 3 with telepod , cg-4 motorized , eq6 pro belt drive .

“Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won't come in.”
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Jean-Yves :flags-canada:
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Re: Mars & Luna Get Together

#5

Post by Ylem »


Nice report Steve 👍
Clear Skies,
-Jeff :telescopewink:


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Re: Mars & Luna Get Together

#6

Post by Unitron48 »


Great report Steve! Certainly VROD worthy!

I agree totally with your fascination in the Moon and its diversity in features. I too was out last night breaking in my newly acquired Lunar photo atlas, "Duplex Moon Atlas" by Ronald Stoyan. I highly recommend it for detailed Lunar viewing.

I caught a quick CP image of Jupiter-Venus last night. They will be much closer tonight, but we are expecting clouds (of course).

Dave
Jup-Venus_022823_01.jpg
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Re: Mars & Luna Get Together

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Post by John Baars »


Fine report! VROD quality!
Refractors in frequency of use : *SW Evostar 120ED F/7.5 (all round ), * Vixen 102ED F/9 (vintage), both on Vixen GPDX.
GrabnGo on Alt/AZ : *SW Startravel 102 F/5 refractor( widefield, Sun, push-to), *OMC140 Maksutov F/14.3 ( planets).
Most used Eyepieces: *Panoptic 24, *Morpheus 14, *Leica ASPH zoom, *Zeiss barlow, *Pentax XO5.
Commonly used bino's : *Jena 10X50 , * Canon 10X30 IS, *Swarovski Habicht 7X42, * Celestron 15X70, *Kasai 2.3X40
Rijswijk Public Observatory: * Astro-Physics Starfire 130 f/8, * 6 inch Newton, * C9.25, * Meade 14 inch LX600 ACF, *Lunt.
Amateur astronomer since 1970.
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Re: Mars & Luna Get Together

#8

Post by helicon »


Thanks for the great report Steve and congrats on (as nominated) winning the VROD for the day! Your report captures the joys of observing with a small high quality refractor with excellent images. Since buying my 4" in January I'm joining the "small refractor" club as well. Easy to haul out, limited fringing of colors at the edge of objects, and sharp images. What else could one want?
-Michael
Refractors: ES AR152 f/6.5 Achromat on Twilight II, Celestron 102mm XLT f/9.8 on Celestron Heavy Duty Alt Az mount, KOWA 90mm spotting scope
Binoculars: Celestron SkyMaster 15x70, Bushnell 10x50
Eyepieces: Various, GSO Superview, 9mm Plossl, Celestron 25mm Plossl
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Post by Butterfly Maiden »


A great report Steve and congratulations on receiving the TSS VROD award for your effort.
Vanessa

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Post by The Wave Catcher »


Awesome! Thanks for the VROD!
Steve Yates

Astro-Tech AT102ED, 102 mm, F/7, ED Achromatic Refractor
Astro-Tech AT80ED, 80 mm, F/7, ED Achromatic Refractor
Bresser AR102s, 102 mm, f/4.5, Achromatic Refractor

Explore Scientific Twilight I Alt/Az Mount
Bresser Nano Alt/Az Mount
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Re: Mars & Luna Get Together

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Post by John Baars »


Congratulations on the VROD!
Refractors in frequency of use : *SW Evostar 120ED F/7.5 (all round ), * Vixen 102ED F/9 (vintage), both on Vixen GPDX.
GrabnGo on Alt/AZ : *SW Startravel 102 F/5 refractor( widefield, Sun, push-to), *OMC140 Maksutov F/14.3 ( planets).
Most used Eyepieces: *Panoptic 24, *Morpheus 14, *Leica ASPH zoom, *Zeiss barlow, *Pentax XO5.
Commonly used bino's : *Jena 10X50 , * Canon 10X30 IS, *Swarovski Habicht 7X42, * Celestron 15X70, *Kasai 2.3X40
Rijswijk Public Observatory: * Astro-Physics Starfire 130 f/8, * 6 inch Newton, * C9.25, * Meade 14 inch LX600 ACF, *Lunt.
Amateur astronomer since 1970.
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Re: Mars & Luna Get Together

#12

Post by Thefatkitty »


Nice time and report Steve; I'm envious! Always nice to get out, and congrats on the VROD too :D

All the best,
Mark

"The Hankmeister" Celestron 8SE, orange tube Vixen made C80, CG4 & AZ-EQ5 mounts.
Too much Towa glass/mirrors.

H/A - PST stage 2 mod with a Baader 90mm ERF on a Celestron XLT 102 (thanks Mike!)
Ca-K - W/O 61mm, Antares 1.6 barlow, Baader 3.8 OD and Ca-K filters with a ZWO ASI174mm.
W/L - C80-HD with Baader 5.0 & 3.8 Solar film, Solar Continuum 7.5nm and UV/IR filters with a Canon EOS 550D.

Oh yeah, and Solar Cycle 25 :D
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Re: Mars & Luna Get Together

#13

Post by kt4hx »


Outstanding report Steve and well done on the VROD. While I am not a lunar observer, I found the mention of seeing details emerge from the terminator quite fascinating. Well done!
Alan

Scopes: Astro Sky 17.5 f/4.5 Dob || Apertura AD12 f/5 Dob || Zhumell Z10 f/4.9 Dob ||
ES AR127 f/6.5 || ES ED80 f/6 || Apertura 6" f/5 Newtonian
Mounts: ES Twilight-II and Twilight-I
EPs: AT 82° 28mm UWA || TV Ethos 100° 21mm and 13mm || Vixen LVW 65° 22mm ||
ES 82° 18mm || Pentax XW 70° 10mm, 7mm and 5mm || barlows
Filters (2 inch): DGM NPB || Orion Ultra Block, O-III and Sky Glow || Baader HaB
Primary Field Atlases: Uranometria All-Sky Edition and Interstellarum Deep Sky Atlas
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"Astronomers, we look into the past to see our future." (me)
"Seeing is in some respect an art, which must be learnt." (William Herschel)
"What we know is a drop, what we don't know is an ocean." (Sir Isaac Newton)
"No good deed goes unpunished." (various)
Some people without brains do an awful lot of talking, don't you think?” (Scarecrow, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz)
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