Welcome back Mars.

August 9th 2020 : 04h00mUT 76mm O.G. x112 Antoniadi I

Early this morning the world of John Carter, Tharks, Synthetic men and dreamers finally came back to life.

It has been a long wait, at least four years since I last had a decent glimpse of this most wonderful and enchanting of planets.

My 76mm refractor revealed with ease the white bright polar caps, the gibbous planetary phase, a hint of Mare Sirenum, and most interestingly a whisper of light over two small areas of the Tharsis region.

To my mind one of those small light areas might be connected to nearby Mons Olympus, the highest volcano on the martian surface.
Was I seeing the Nix Olympus "The Snows of Olympus"?

I made a quick sketch, said hello to John Carter, and dreamed the astronomer's dream, for maybe another half hour.
The night was now fast giving way to the day, I slowly packed away the telescope, and made a few notes.

This was my first observation of the 2020/21 apparition, the planet was 15.6 arc seconds in diameter.
From now until October, Mars is just going to increase in size.

The next few months are going to be exciting.

Welcome back Mars, you have been sorely missed.

Clear Martian skies

Mark.

Is the climate changing?

An entry from one of my favourite astronomy books "The Stars Night by Night" by Joseph H. Elgie.

This is his journal entry for May 1st 1907!  113 years ago to the day....WOW!

Climate change concern has been around for longer than I thought !


Also note how climate change was apparently an "old, old question" even back in 1907 !

Henry Hatfield's Spectrohelioscope - 1985

I love this whole video, from the subject matter, to the pace of Henry Hatfield's delivery, a classic.

Thank you to the amateur astronomer Martin Mobberley for putting this video on YouTube.

N.B. If you ever want to read a great biography about the late great Sir Patrick Moore, Martin has written the definitive story of his life. (two volumes)
www.amazon.co.uk/Martin-Mobberley

Well worth reading.