Mars Image

Space Imaging ^

[RadioAstronomer]

Space Imaging's IKONOS satellite imaged the planet Mars.

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

Let me know if you run into Ming the Merciless. LOL

[PatrickHenry]

Belated Mars ping. [This ping list is for the evolution side of evolution threads, and sometimes for other science topics. FReepmail me to be added or dropped.]

[djf]

Mars is still extraordinary in the mid-eve sky.
This must be quite the time for celestial events. Next June 8th, Venus will be at inferior conjunction, and will transit the sun, an event that has not occurred for the last 121 years.

ps: Do NOT! try to watch this event with a telescope or binoculars!

[Salman]

Phobos orbits in 7 hours 59 minutes
Deimos orbits in 30 hours 18 minutes

He's half right. Phobos orbits faster than one Martian day, so it would appear to go in the opposite direction from Deimos, as seen from the surface of Mars.

[Molly Pitcher]

Thanks RA. My son and I enjoyed 2 weeks of amazingly clear skies here in n.e.Ohio at the end of Aug. We were out every night looking at noble Mars, standing guard in the s.e. sky.

[edwin hubble]

Great work.

Great use of technology in an unintended application.

I see Syrtis Major in the first image.
At first I couldn't recogize the pattern, because the image is erect. We're so used to the inverted image.

excellent resolution and sharpness.

[RightWhale]

A friend of mine learned how to grind lenses and so forth at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago.

Planetariums used to host amateur telescope makers. Nobody makes their own mirrors anymore; they are missing out, it is one of the best hobbies.

[stanz]

Just curious...was anybody able to get a glimpse of Mars with the naked eye? I stared at the night skies in NY from 8/26 until the weekend and gave up. Probably too cloudy.

[longshadow]

Ahem..one night, as I was checking the telescope prior to a sky show for the local Boy Scout troop, I happened to observe that the college dorms were readily viewable from our little observatory. 'Nuff said.

They don't call Astronomy the "Study of Heavenly Bodies" for nothing.......

The bigger question is how did you log the experience in your Observation Notebook:

"a blonde-colored object, with multiple appendages and a dark patch in the Southern Region, was sighted near the horizon at 0417UT with 25mm eyepiece using the 12" refractor; does not match anything in the star atlas, Verhenberg's Deep-Sky Atlas, or any of the Messier Objects, and it's position does not conform to the ephemeris of any known comet. A more detailed and a closer inspection is required to fully resolve this object...."

[longshadow]

ROFL! Of course as president you immediately put stops in the mount so it could not point in that direction! /sarcasm off

Were I in the same predicament, I'd react thusly: "Hand me the Barlow, quick!"

[longshadow]

was anybody able to get a glimpse of Mars with the naked eye?

Mars is currently the brightest object in the night skies except for the Moon.

Look toward the Southeast on a clear night around 10 pm local time. You can't miss it.

[RadioAstronomer]

I noticed that as well. :-)

I wonder if that would have hindered or hurried our understanding of the solar system and Kepler's laws if our Earth had the same phenomena with two moons.

[RadioAstronomer]

Let me know if you run into Ming the Merciless. LOL

ROFL! :-)

[RadioAstronomer]

My son and I enjoyed 2 weeks of amazingly clear skies here in n.e.Ohio at the end of Aug. We were out every night looking at noble Mars, standing guard in the s.e. sky.

Way cool! I used to do the same when I was a wee lad. Just stand outside an look up. (guess I never grew up!) :-)

[RadioAstronomer]

Thank you so much! Not as good as the Hubble, but not too bad for a satellite designed for Earth observation. :-)

[RadioAstronomer]

Were I in the same predicament, I'd react thusly: "Hand me the Barlow, quick!"

Indeed! :-)

[djf]

I am curious, does anyone know if they have tried using the large adaptive optics array yet?

[RadioAstronomer]

I sure dont. I will try to find out.

[Molly Pitcher]

Just repeating what my father did for me....pointing out the stars, planets and constellations.

Great pics you took!

[stanz]

I tried that. I was in Central Park the night of 8/27 and looked SE....nothing. Then over the weekend,in NJ, I looked and didn't see anything. How large is it supposed to appear...like the moon or much smaller?