Mars on Thursday Feb 12
by Vern on Feb.12, 2010, under Astronomy, Planetary
Another image of Mars from last evening just before 11 pm. Image oriented north up, east to the left more or less. Mare Acidalium is the dark albedo feature visible just below and slightly left of north polar cap. Sinus Merdiani is the roundish dark area just below center and slightly right or west. Mare Sabaeus is the dark line extending from Sabaeus to the southwest. Arabia is the large lighter region west of center.

Mostly cloudy here last night but got some occasional gaps in them so I could capture mars images. Turbulence was about 5/10 or maybe slightly better. However thin haze always present with varying transparency from fair to poor. I was able to compensate somewhat by changing gain on camera while recording. However I had to drop Registax quality to 85% to get even a couple hundred frames. Temp 28F, 3-5 mph wind, location Louisville. Usual setup, Celstron Nexstar11, 2.5X Powermate, DMK21AU04.AS video camera, and LRGB filters.