Either Saturday or Sunday
It was one of those nights. Just one of those, crazy nights.
That’s right. Crumby was out in the early evening with the Great Red Tube (GRT). Asteroid Vesta had moved off a good ways past Gamma Leonis. The time was around 8 PM.
Had to be one of those crazy nights because the cursed stadium lights were off. On a week day those cursed lights would be on.
OK. Crumby has figured out that his first ever observations of actual features on Mars occurred during the weekend of February 20-21, 2010, Julian calendar. All righty then. Crumby, just at this very nonce remembered also that the night of the actual observance was probably a Sunday night. That’s because Crumby remembers thinking to himself and talking out loud, Boy howdy, I’m sure lucky I don’t have to go to work tomorrow.
That about sizes everything up. It was Sunday night that Crumby espied Martian features for the first time ever. But what were those features? Well. The eyes had a terrible aspect. Huh-huh.
No, no, no. Not Mars the Roman God of War. Crumby espied features on Mars, the planet. But what were those features? Easy that, Crumby espied bright white reflections at both poles with the lower one (Newt look) appearing larger and brighter. Then, in between the poles, there were areas of darker versus lighter. That’s about it. Because Crumby never actually believed he could espy any detail on Mars, Crumby had not studied up any on Martian detail in preparation for this viewing event or session.
But now, Crumby has looked at drawings of Mars on the Cloudy Nights Solar System Forum. So now Crumby knows a little of what to expect given good seeing conditions.
The equipment Crumby used on Mars , besides the 10", F5, GRT, was a 20mm TV plossl and 3x TV barlow and a 12.5mm UO ortho with an Ultima 2x barlow plus cheapo Celestron #12 and #56 color filters.
Now, descending from the astronomical to the merely meteorological, yesterday, we were beset with snow as this picture indicates. However, by dusk, most of the snow had melted. So now, this morning there is barely any trace of any snow. One might say, that snow was highly ephemeral.
That’s right. Crumby was out in the early evening with the Great Red Tube (GRT). Asteroid Vesta had moved off a good ways past Gamma Leonis. The time was around 8 PM.
Had to be one of those crazy nights because the cursed stadium lights were off. On a week day those cursed lights would be on.
OK. Crumby has figured out that his first ever observations of actual features on Mars occurred during the weekend of February 20-21, 2010, Julian calendar. All righty then. Crumby, just at this very nonce remembered also that the night of the actual observance was probably a Sunday night. That’s because Crumby remembers thinking to himself and talking out loud, Boy howdy, I’m sure lucky I don’t have to go to work tomorrow.
That about sizes everything up. It was Sunday night that Crumby espied Martian features for the first time ever. But what were those features? Well. The eyes had a terrible aspect. Huh-huh.
No, no, no. Not Mars the Roman God of War. Crumby espied features on Mars, the planet. But what were those features? Easy that, Crumby espied bright white reflections at both poles with the lower one (Newt look) appearing larger and brighter. Then, in between the poles, there were areas of darker versus lighter. That’s about it. Because Crumby never actually believed he could espy any detail on Mars, Crumby had not studied up any on Martian detail in preparation for this viewing event or session.
But now, Crumby has looked at drawings of Mars on the Cloudy Nights Solar System Forum. So now Crumby knows a little of what to expect given good seeing conditions.
The equipment Crumby used on Mars , besides the 10", F5, GRT, was a 20mm TV plossl and 3x TV barlow and a 12.5mm UO ortho with an Ultima 2x barlow plus cheapo Celestron #12 and #56 color filters.
Now, descending from the astronomical to the merely meteorological, yesterday, we were beset with snow as this picture indicates. However, by dusk, most of the snow had melted. So now, this morning there is barely any trace of any snow. One might say, that snow was highly ephemeral.
posted by ray pistrum at Wednesday, February 24, 2010
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