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Monday, March 12, 2012
Mars in Opposition
I cleaned the 6 inch mirror on my Dobsonian telescope a while back, and when I put the whole thing back together, something wasn't quite right. I was getting dim and blurry views. So yesterday I went into telescope maintenance mode and, as the Brits would say, got it all sorted.
I was out looking at Mars last night. The view is not nearly as spectacular as the image above, but it is very nice. But I can't see much of the northern polar cap -- it is, after all, summer time in the Martian Northern Hemisphere.
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Tuesday, July 26, 2011
How Curiosity Will Land on Mars
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Friday, March 12, 2010
Cool Phobos Picture
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Mars Express Phobos Fly-by (Wednesday)
Mars Express carried the Beagle II lander to the red planet. I was in the UK when they made that brave attempt to put the probe on the surface, and shared in the disappointment when no signals came back. Later, I had the privilege of meeting Beagle II's creator, Colin Pillinger. Colin gave me signed copies of his wonderful books on Mars.
Here's some more info on Wednesday's fly-by (from ESA):
1 March 2010
ESA’s Mars Express will skim the surface of Mars’ largest moon Phobos on Wednesday evening. Passing by at an altitude of 67 km, precise radio tracking will allow researchers to peer inside the mysterious moon.
Mars Express is currently engaged in a series of 12 flybys of Phobos. At each close pass, different instruments are trained towards the mysterious space rock, gaining new information. The closest flyby will take place on 3 March at 21:55 CET (20:55 GMT).
From close range, Mars Express will be pulled ‘off-course’ by the gravitational field of Phobos. This will amount to no more than a few millimetres every second and will not affect the mission in any way. However, to the tracking teams on Earth, it will allow a unique look inside the moon to see how its mass is distributed throughout.
How will the ground teams make these tremendously sensitive measurements? Ironically, they will turn off all data signals from the spacecraft. The only thing that the ground stations will listen out for is the ‘carrier signal’ – the pure radio signal that is normally modulated to carry data.
Preparing for closest approach to Phobos |
After the closest flyby, the work is not over. Mars Express will sweep past Phobos a further seven times before the campaign is complete. In addition to the tracking experiment, known as MaRS for Mars Radio Science, the MARSIS radar has already been probing the subsurface of Phobos with radar beams. “We have performed a preliminary processing of the data and the Phobos signature is evident in almost all the data set,” says Andrea Cicchetti, Italian Institute of Physics of Interplanetary Space, Rome, and one of the MARSIS team.
The MARSIS radar is already taking data |
All photos from ESA.
Monday, January 25, 2010
More Mars (with olive oil)
We had clear skies this past weekend, and with Mars approaching full opposition, I had the telescope out. We got some better views of Mars than we had last week. When the atmosphere (ours!) would settle down a bit I could make out some of the dark "canali." The Northen polar cap was very visible. The moon was bright (first quarter I think) and so I was wondering if we'd be able to see the M31 galaxy in Andromeda. Even with the moon close in the sky, I had no trouble finding the galaxy using my old Soviet-made 7X50 binoculars. We also looked at the North America nebula in Orion's sword (very appropriate as we had Canadian friends with us).
My telescope (above) has a simple but effective Dobsonian mount. (This system is named for the amateur astronomy guru John Dobson -- interesting guy.) The 'scope basically slide on teflon pads. These pads need a bit of lubrication from time to time. Mine were getting a bit sticky, so I started to look around for something to to grease the teflon. The solution was literally all around me:
Worked like a charm!
Also got on the air with the HW-8 and worked stations on 80, 40, and 20, including two QRP stations.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Springtime on Mars (as seen from the Sabine hills)
After months of looking at Jupiter, we now have a good view of Mars. On Saturday night we had a "Mars-rise" over Monte Calvo shortly after sunset. Mars is really bright now (explained below) and the distinctive red color really jumps out.
I didn't take the picture, but the shot above gives you a good idea of what I was looking at on Saturday night. The Northern polar cap was very apparent in my six inch Newtonian Dobsonian. It looked like it had a dark border around it. Martian North is at the bottom in this shot. It is Spring in the Northern hemisphere of Mars now.
Mars is now in a very good position for observation from Earth. On January 27, it will be in full opposition:
So hey, this is the time for those of you who are hoping to win the Elser-Mathes Trophy! Aim those Yagis and be sure to tune UP!
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Mars Rovers Complete 5 Years on Red Planet
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Parachuting on Mars
What a great shot! This is the Phoenix lander descending to the Martian surface by parachute. The photo was taken from Mars orbit by the MRO probe. You can even see the shroud lines!
Well done! Bravissimo!
(And Phoenix features solar panels and antennas, making it an entirely suitable subject for SolderSmoke News.)