Mars

Summary: You should be able to locate Mars and identify the shrunken remnant of the north polar cap (after May 1999), dark surface markings, limb hazes, and occasional white clouds or dust storms.

Grading (25 points): After all students on your lab night have had enough time to completed this lab, the TA may give a quiz at the beginning of the next lab period or may ask you to turn in a write-up, including your observing notes and sketches and your answers to the questions.

Note: Clear skies are relatively rare in Nashville, so you should make the very best of your time at the telescope and use it to OBSERVE. Use it to make sketches, make notes and write down measurements and discuss the questions asked in the lab. Leave out all calculations, writing down your answers to the questions, etc., for later, and complete the lab in the comfort of a heated, well-lit room.

Background:

For an excellent discussion of Mars from the point of view of an observer with a small telescope, see The Red Planet is Back on the Sky & Telescope magazine's website.

1. Getting Started: As always, align the finder with the main tube of the telescope, using a bright object in the sky or far away near the ground. Next align the telescope with north celestial pole, following the procedure found in the Introduction to the Telescope lab.

Notes: Make notes describing the atmospheric conditions tonight. Is the sky clear, partly cloudy, high cirrus clouds? Is the air moist? Is it windy? How does this night compare with other nights on which you have observed (better? worse? in which way?). Think about how the weather may affect your view of Mars.

2. First locate Mars in the sky . Using the 25 mm eyepiece, and with the help of the finder scope, locate Mars in the telescope and then center it in the field of view. Make a sketch of the field of view, showing the planet and surrounding stars. Try to make an accurate record of the positions of the objects in the field of view. Do you see any objects that look like they could be moons of Mars?

Indicate the orientation of your sketch (direction of North and East in the field of view). Remember, the sky rotates from East to West, so when you turn off the motor drive of the telescope, objects drift westward in the eyepiece. If you move the telescope in declination toward the South (lower declinations), objects will drift North in the field of view.

3. Sketch Mars: Switch to the 10 mm eyepiece. Draw what you see. You will have to be patient, watch for a long time, and wait for clear views of Mars through brief patches of still air.

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