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."

Mars Dust Bad!

[deathcow]

While this is exciting for amateur astronomers to see a process like this happening on Mars, it's also very forboding and ominous. Mars has a bad habit of becoming engulfed in planet wide dust storms which almost totally hide the surface features of the planet.

I am sure many amateurs like myself would prefer NO dust storms on Mars while it is so close to the Earth, and so favorably positioned for Northern hemisphere observers. This has been a great Mars apparition so far, I've watched it growing in the eyepiece since August. If the dust stays clear, Mars will be large enough to enjoy until almost February. If it turns into a cloudy red ball, well...

This page shows a dust storm growing from the 2003 apparition of Mars, and a picture of the dreaded featureless red ball.
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2003/09jul_mars dust.htm [nasa.gov]

Re:Mars Dust Bad!

[MichaelSmith]

Mars has a bad habit of becoming engulfed in planet wide dust storms which almost totally hide the surface features of the planet.

It looks impressive from here but I am not sure how dense the dust really is. If a storm like this impacts on one of the two rovers currently operating there it would definitely cause some power supply problems for them, but I don't know if this would be immediately fatal.

What about the rovers that just wont quit

[elfarto]

I wonder how this storm my affect the twin rovers on mars ?
Has anyone heard about this issue ?