New Dust Storm on Mars Viewable with Telescopes

starexplorer writes "Space.com is reporting that a large dust storm has just began on Mars, just as the Red Planet has gotten in prime viewing location this weekend with a decent sized backyard telescope. An amazing stroke of luck for everyone this weekend! Three PDF Viewing Guides, movies and more available to help get you started."

Re:Viewable with My Telescope?

[deathcow]

With a Meade 125-ETX, assuming 1) the system is working well, and 2) you keep your diagonals and eyepieces clean, and 3) your atmospheric seeing conditions are OK, you should be able to observe the dust storm as a bright patch on the planet. You would be able to see the dark and light "albedo" regions of the planet and find the dust storm based on them.

The features of Mars can be quite subtle. It will help if you are warm, sitting comfortably, and able to watch for a long enough period to experience good moments of atmospheric seeing.

The more time you observe, the greater your chances of getting those unusual moments of clarity. Many, MANY people will spend about 5 minutes looking at Mars in variably moderate seeing and give up on it. This is not the way to see the most your telescope has to offer.

Mike

Re:Viewable with My Telescope?

[eingram]

Well, there is more air between us and Mars when Mars is just rising, and less air once it reaches zenith (directly overhead). Any astronomer will tell you that they prefer to view things near the zenith because if seeing (atmospheric conditions like blurring) is bad, it won't be as bad near the zenith.

However, their necks and backs may not agree.

Not Viewable ...

[Anonymous Coward]

VISIBLE!!!

I'll never read Slashdot again.

Re:Wait a minute...

[tzot]

Have you seen a strange large ball of fire in the sky? Ever considered it might be a source of energy?

Earth is closer to the Sun than Mars is, but there's still a lot of energy reaching Mars' surface.

Re:Rovers

[jacksonj04]

No. Due to the lower gravity and atmospheric density on Mars, it is very easy for even light winds to whip the dust into what look like impressive storms. However, something reasonably solid such as a rover can (in theory, wouldn't recommend it due to the dust abrasion etc) plough straight through the middle of whirlwinds etc. with no issues of being flung around.

Amateur power . . .

[flug]

This is a great example of the type of work that can and is still being done by amateur astronomers.

(Actually Clay Sherrod, who seems to be the first to have imaged this storm, isn't an amateur but he's active in the ALPO Mars section which consists mainly of amateurs and he images at a small observatory, not some huge government funded observatory with various gigantic telescopes.)

The thing is, the big expensive government funded telescopes, or the Hubble, for example, can take better photos of Mars than amateurs can. But there is the question of coverage . . . the big expensive telescopes just don't have the resources (ie, observing time) to image Mars (or any other particular object or planet) several times a night whenever that object is visible.

But amateurs do have the observing time available and they do the work . . . result is, amateurs do a lot of the meat & potatoes of keeping an eye on things like Mars or Jupiter.

More of Sherrod's photos of the beginning of the Mars dust storm [arksky.org] and numerous photos of this Mars apparition [arksky.org].

Since Sherrod is imaging Mars pretty much every possible night, he was on the spot to catch this as it happened . . .

Also, if you haven't been following trends in astro-imaging, you may be amazed at the quality of images people are now getting using relatively modest telescopes (generally 8 to 14 inch scopes, the sort of thing you can buy basically off the shelf for maybe $800 to $5000) coupled with inexpensive webcams.

See numerous amateur astronomer's images of this apparition of Mars here [arizona.edu]. (warning--LOTS of images on that page).