CLOSE ENCOUNTER WITH MARS - Photo Opportunity?

[new girl on the bloc]

What does everyone think? What would be needed to capture this on camera?

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Never again in your (or my) lifetime will the Red Planet be so spectacular This month and next Earth is catching up with Mars, an encounter that will culminate in the closest approach between the two planets in recorded history. The next time Mars may come this close is
in 2287.

Due to the way Jupiter's gravity tugs on Mars and perturbs its orbit, astronomers can only be certain that Mars has not come this close to Earth in the last 5,000 years but it may be as long as 60,000 years.

The encounter will culminate on August 27th when Mars comes to within 34,649,589 miles and will be (next to the moon) the brightest object in the night sky. It will attain a magnitude of -2.9 and will appear 25.11 arc seconds wide. At a modest 75-power magnification Mars will look as large as the full moon to he naked eye.

Mars will be easy to spot. At the beginning of August Mars will rise in the east at 10 p.m. and reach its azimuth at about 3 a.m. But by the end of August when the two planets are closest, Mars will rise at nightfall and reach its highest point in the sky at 12:30 a.m. That's pretty convenient when it comes to seeing something that no human has seen in recorded history.

So, mark your calendar at the beginning of August to see Mars grow progressively brighter and brighter throughout the month. Share this! No one alive today will ever see this again.

[Bascule]

I, for one, am certainly looking forward to it. I'll be on holiday in Portugal for the second two weeks of August. Much of the time up in the hills north of the Algarve away from the light polution. The only problem is I'm just a beginner and all I'll have with me is my G3 with nothing else! So I'd be interested to see what you Astro-photographers can come up with. Look forward to seeing some pics .....

I'd also be grateful for any tips on shooting the night sky. Has anyone tried using manual mode to get any decent shots of the starts? I'm not after magnification just detail.

[Deckyon]

You will need some magnification to get any detail. At least a Telephoto adapter, but the CrystalView spotting scope will work, telescope best.

Go out and practice. You will need to use manual mode AND manual focus, set to infinity. I was out this past weekend trying different methods, looking for something that would work. Please note the links below:
Astrophotography and the G3, Part 1 (http://www.deckyon.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=21)
Astrophotography and the G3, Part 2 (http://www.deckyon.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=28)
Astrophotography and the G3, Part 3 (http://www.deckyon.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=32&mode=thread&order=1&thold=-1)

Now, best you can do is go to NASA and find out when Mars will be up highest from now until the zenith. When it first comes up, it will look yellow/orange. You will know it.

When I was out this past weekend, I had the tracking motor on on my telescope, and I was able to see detail starting at 48x, and polar caps at 96x. Read the following to find out what filters will work best for seeing different details on mars:
ScopeTronix Mars Information Page (http://www.scopetronix.com/marsinfo.htm)

That should help a bit. Also, if you have access to a laptop, use it to setup the camera and take the pictures. The G3 LCD is just too bright to see what you are shooting at. I learned this last weekend.

Good luck.

[new girl on the bloc]

Thanks Brad. I lack the telescopic equipment that you speak of but I'm gonna give it a shot with what i do have, a telephoto lens. If my eye can see it then the camera can too ;)

[12345Michael54321]

new girl on the bloc wrote:
> Never again in your (or my) lifetime will the Red Planet be so spectacular

Technically true, but bear in mind that Mars does occasionally get 95-98% as "spectacular" as it does this time. So while this approach is the closest in recorded history, it's only trivially closer than have been many other approaches.

Me? I'm a Jupiter fan. Mars - even at its closest approach to Earth - subtends barely 25 seconds of arc. Jupiter appears nearly twice as large. Big advantage to Jupiter, right there. (Jupiter, at a relatively modest 36 power, appears as large as the full moon does to the naked eye.)

Yes, one can see Mars' ice caps. But terrain detail is usually illusive to the point of invisibility. So illusive that even looking at Mars through telescopes far larger than most amateurs can afford, the finest planetary observers of their time couldn't even determine whether channels truly existed. And sketches of the planet varied wildly in terms of apparent surface features.

Jupiter, on the other hand, will show multiple bands of differing hues and brightnesses, even in a small telescope. In a slightly larger scope, details such as festoons, the Great Red Spot, and so on are readily visible. Moreover, these features change very rapidly - often over the course of a few hours - so Jupiter is a much more active subject than Mars, whose changes (in size of ice caps and the occasional global dust storm blotting out all surface detail) generally require days to weeks for one to fully appreciate.

Whereas Mars' two tiny moons are essentially invisible to anything short of a very large telescope, Jupiter's four largest moons will regularly and visibly transit the planet's face, casting shadows upon Jupiter. They will also be eclipsed by the planet, suddenly winking out as they pass into Jupiter's shadow, and then winking back into visibility upon reemerging. Every so often, one moon will even move in front of or behind another, in a mutual event. Watching these moons is itself a popular pastime for many amateur astronomers.

As for Saturn, it appears smaller than Jupiter, although still huge by Mars standards. And its cloud belts are more subdued, its moons slightly less interesting to watch. But it's got rings, man. I've shown Saturn to countless people over the years, and none fail to be impressed at their first sight of it through a telescope. It's probably second only to the moon, for sheer "Wow!" response.

But hey, to each his own.

[new girl on the bloc]

Thanks Michael. I rather like all of the planets - Jupiter being my planet since I am a Sagittarius ;), but I posted this because I have heard that Mars is going to be visibly close to earth soon and I wondered about capturing a photo of it, though I am sure that I lack the proper equipment.

[rssfhs]

We have a nice view of Mars tonight here in Fuji. I still haven't got around to buying my 1200mm lens yet so I can't really do it justice, but here's what it looks like with the naked eye, only slightly redish:

http://www.haussonnenschein.com/images/mars.jpg