2010 Mars Apparition

[PPI Brian]

February 2010 is a great time to observe Mars. This is the time just after the Red Planet passed closest to Earth in its 687-day journey around the Sun. When Mars appears bright in the night sky, it is in opposition to the Sun, meaning that it is opposite the Sun in the sky as seen from Earth. It is also closer to Earth at this time than at any other time in its orbit. As such, this is when it is brightest and best positioned for observational study. Whenever Mars or any other planet is visible in the night sky for a period of weeks, this entire period is said to be a single apparition. Mars' latest apparition began in December 2009, and reached opposition on January 29 2010. This month you can see it above the eastern horizon early on clear cold evenings as a bright ruddy "star". By 9:00 PM, it will be high enough above the horizon that you can view Mars without the usual distortion caused by the thicker atmosphere lower on the horizon.

I took advantage of the clear skies Monday night and got out my telescope. While I set up and aligned the telescope, set up the laptop and tested the Lunar and Planetary Imager, I wondered briefly why all of my hobbies were so freaking technical and labor intensive.  This image is one of the best of the evening. It is a composite of approximately 200 individually captured images, aligned and stacked to improve resolution, and shows Mars at 14 arc seconds in diameter (very tiny!), shining at magnitude -1.11 (very bright!) with 99% of the planet illuminated by the sun. There are many features clearly visible: The north polar ice cap and the south polar ice caps; Tharsis (large light area) to the far right of the planet, Meridiani (dark area) to the left, Chryse region in the center, where the famous Valles Marineris emptied into Solis Lacus (the eye of Mars).

Sorry about the technobabble. It's just a pretty picture of a very distant planet. 
 

[ljiljanac]

Very nice, Brian!  Thanks for posting that!  I'm going to see what I can see on my telescope this weekend.   

[Gary]

I'd like to say this again, that I think we should have a night to get together and use our telescopes.  Well... YOUR telescopes.  I have none.  When I went to Hawaii and we went to Mauna Kea Observatory and they had about 20 different telescopes all set up outside for people to look through.  It was AWESOME!!!  I don't even know what I was looking at but it was that amazing.  Soooo.... anyone else down?  I realize it's those with telescopes I really need to convince!   ::|

[Damian]

That is so cool Brian!  I feel like I just went to the Palomar Observatory, and got a free tour of the red planet.

I'm amazed at how visibly distinct the polar ice caps are in your layered photo.

That reminds me of something I was watching this last year about a manned mission to Mars.  The documentary was talking about how it would be far easier for us to travel to one of Mars' moons, but I can't remember if it was Phobos or Deimos.  Establish a base of operations on that moon, and use it as a staging area for eventual travel to the surface of Mars.  And as I was watching this, I was blown away at how tangible it seemed that humans could, in my lifetime, be working on the surface of a neighboring planet.  And with the obvious polar ice caps there, that's a valuable resource that could be used (judiciously, I'd hope) to sustain human existance on Mars.

God, I love this kind of stuff!  It always serves as a great reminder of just how small and insignificant I am in the grand scheme of things, and by extension, how small my worries truly are.

[PPI Tracy]

Brian, you have truly given me back a great love of astronomy.  My grandfather had a library full of "Sky and Telescope" magazines from the 30's - 70's.  He had several telescopes.  I used to spend hours just looking through them as a kid and admiring the scopes he had.  He would let me look through the magazines but we could never touch the telescopes except with him there.  I'm sure they are considered dinosaurs by today's standards, but they always fascinated me.  I just wish I lived somewhere that had less light at night and was more "galaxy gazing" friendly. 

[Damian]

Speaking of light pollution and "gazing friendly" areas, I'm not sure if I mentioned my love-affair with Joshua Tree National Park.

I've never used a telescope out there, but some of the most spectacular astronomic events I've ever seen were in that beautiful park, and the clarity of the night sky out there is something to be witnessed.

I happened to be out there during a lunar eclipse without realizing that event would be occuring while I was camping there.  The light that bathed the desert flora had such a unique tinge to it.  I was awe-stricken.  I happened to be sitting atop a large rock outcropping maybe 40 feet tall or so, and had a great vantage point where I could look up and see the eclipse in action, and look down at the desert floor all the way around me to see how it was illuminated.  Talk about synchronicity!

And about 2 years ago, while camping with friends again out there, it was around 10 or 11pm, many of us laying on our backs on a large rock structure, talking, listening to music, and staring at the sky.  On one side of the horizon (I can't remember if it was North, South, East, or West) a HUGE meteor began streaking across the sky.  I would say that, from our perspective, it was about half the size of how the moon looks in the sky.  As it streaked, it broke into 3 distinct pieces, all of which were still significantly large.  The largest of the 3 pieces continued to streak as the other 2 faded away.  That largest piece broke into about 5 more pieces and continued streaking until we lost sight of them behind the opposite horizon 180-degrees from where it began.  You could hear gasps and shouts of "WHOA!" coming from all over the campgrounds.  That is still a favorite memory that my friends and I share when we talk about our various camping trips.

What a great place to set up telescopes and do some star gazing!

[PPI Tracy]

Wow, Damian.  What a cool story.  What an amazing experience.  Truly something you will remember all of your life.

[Damian]

That's for sure!  I wish I could re-experience it and lock it away in my memories and preserve it.  Hopefully, over time, that won't be a memory that fades.

[PPI Brian]

Wow, thank you all for your kind remarks. Its great to hear that everyone here shares an appreciation of the night sky. Like Damian said, contemplating the vastness of space is a great way to put our problems in perspective. And you don't have to go to a dark sky site to enjoy it. On moonless nights you can still bag distant galaxies with your small telescope. I spent hours in the parking lot of our apartment complex in Casa de Oro looking at galaxies that were over 70,000,000 light years away!

A star party is one of those group activities we should do. However, we may want to wait until the weather warms up.    I don't know many people (other than Tim) who can brave the bone chilling winter temperatures in the middle of the night while I fiddle with the focus and the exposure settings and take another shot of Mars, and another, and another. Wait, just one more. Nope, not quite right. Let me try that again. I think that ranks right up there with counting meteors during shower activity, and reporting your numbers to the American Meteor Society.

[ljiljanac]

Hey guys.....have telescope, will travel.  Let's plan a night!   

[Damian]

I'm game...let's do this!

[PPI Tracy]

Absolutely!  Like they say on Extreme Home Makeover......."Letsssssssss Doooooo It"! 


wow..that was lame.  sounded much better in my head....

[Damian]

A+ for the effort Tracy!   

[Gary]

I give you an A++!   

[PPI Tracy]

I give you an A++!   

"A +, +, +, +, +, +"!

Now all I need you guys to do is carry me around a classroom on your shoulders while I blow kisses to everyone.

[Damian]

You supply the tiarra and scepter, and we'll supply the rose petals, ticker-tape, and muscle.   

[PPI Debra]

Astronaut T J Creamer actually sends tweets (Twitter) from the space station every day. You can tweet him questions.

http://twitter.com/Astro_TJ

[Gary]

Astronaut T J Creamer actually sends tweets (Twitter) from the space station every day. You can tweet him questions.

http://twitter.com/Astro_TJ

No joke?  I have NEVER ONCE seen twitters website, and have vowed to stay away from twitter.  Facebook is enough.... but tweeting to a dude in space?  I think I will break my vow for this one special situation!  That sounds really cool.

[PPI Jason]

Astronaut T J Creamer actually sends tweets (Twitter) from the space station every day. You can tweet him questions.

http://twitter.com/Astro_TJ

No joke?  I have NEVER ONCE seen twitters website, and have vowed to stay away from twitter.  Facebook is enough.... but tweeting to a dude in space?  I think I will break my vow for this one special situation!  That sounds really cool.

[ljiljanac]

O-M-G Jason.  lmao!   

[Gary]

DUDE..... that graph says is all..... LOL, thanks for that Jason!!!   

[PPI Tracy]

Okay Jason, that's it....you are now officially referred to as "Captain Cool"

you crack me UP!

[Damian]

YES!!!  Never underestimate the power of the Venn Diagram!  Nice work Jason.   

[PPI Debra]

Astronaut T J Creamer actually sends tweets (Twitter) from the space station every day. You can tweet him questions.

http://twitter.com/Astro_TJ

No joke?  I have NEVER ONCE seen twitters website, and have vowed to stay away from twitter.  Facebook is enough.... but tweeting to a dude in space?  I think I will break my vow for this one special situation!  That sounds really cool.

Now you have to find a place for the newly launched google buzz network!

[PPI Tracy]

Don't forget about "Friendster"

I love what Conan calls You Tube, Twitter and Facebook all put together:

"You Twit Face" 

[Damian]

I can't believe we're losing Conan for Jay Leno!  Terrible decision by NBC in my humble opinion.

[PPI Tracy]

I can't believe we're losing Conan for Jay Leno!  Terrible decision by NBC in my humble opinion.

Ditto, ma brotha.  Leno is Leno but Conan is awesome.  What really got me was Conan's last show when he sat at that Tonight Show desk for the last time and spoke directly into the camera and said how lucky he has been in his life.  He conveyed his sincere appreciation to NBC for giving him a great career for the last 20 (?) years and he was very grateful.  He also said that if you are good to people, treat them nicely and are just a good person inside, that good things happen to you.  He also said how proud he was of all the work he has done with NBC, including the Tonight Show and it was his dream job.  He got teary eyed but kept it together.  I thought that no matter if you love "Coco" or not, you cannot deny that he went off the air with dignity, integrity and class. 

[PPI Tracy]

Oh...and one more thing.....

I think the decision to can Coco will come back to bite NBC in the arse.

[Damian]

I love the Coco nickname.  I laughed my arse off when I saw Tom Hanks (I think) coin that nickname!

Conan is a great comedy writer and I loved his show.  I hope he'll turn up on late night TV again soon.

[PPI Tracy]

Yep.  You are right.  All Tom Hanks' fault.