NPH or Southern Polar Cap Visibility?

[David Totney]

I haven’t observed Mars for a few weeks. It is now approaching 11 arc seconds in size. I have been able to detect Northern Polar Hood clouds, and the southern polar cap with my 127mm Maksutov. All of my software is now not showing the polar cap as visible. Has anyone observed Mars in the past week or so? If so, is the cap visible?

• This topic was modified 2 years, 3 months ago by David Totney.

Telescopes: One Newtonian, three Maksutov Cassegrains, seven refractors, and a large SCT.

[David Totney]

I got a brief view of Mars last night with my 127mm Maksutov Cassegrain. The planet’s starting to look quite big at 11.4 arc seconds. The phase was very distinctive (86.9% illuminated). Although the seeing was fairly good for the time of year there were humidity/transparency issues. At 17° altitude I wasn’t expecting much to be honest. I used a Baader Semi-Apo filter and magnifications between about 180x~256x. I’m pretty sure I could just about perceive the tiny white point of the southern pole. The possible NPH clouds were in the north but quite muted compared to what they were a few weeks ago. I also got a hint of darker albedo features.

Telescopes: One Newtonian, three Maksutov Cassegrains, seven refractors, and a large SCT.

[David Totney]

I had an early morning session on Mars with my 127mm Mak-Cass (05:00 ~ 05:45 BST). Mars was 11.7 arc seconds wide at about 58 degrees altitude and 87.2% illuminated. Seeing was above average although there was a fair amount of humidity with concomitant transparency issues. I used Baader Blue and Semi-Apo filters at magnifications of 205x and 257x. The phase and the southern pole were easily discerned, as were darker albedo features in the south. The blue filter helped greatly with white albedo features. Again, as far as I could tell there was a lighter albedo feature in the north (NPH?).

Telescopes: One Newtonian, three Maksutov Cassegrains, seven refractors, and a large SCT.

[Paul G. Abel]

Hi David,

The south polar cap is now too small to see, but the north polar hood is becoming prominent. There is currently a large regional dust storm underway (although it might be receding) so you’ll find features like Solis Lacus a bit more challenging to see at the moment.

Cheers
-Paul

[David Totney]

Paul G. Abel wrote:

Hi David,

The south polar cap is now too small to see, but the north polar hood is becoming prominent. There is currently a large regional dust storm underway (although it might be receding) so you’ll find features like Solis Lacus a bit more challenging to see at the moment.

Cheers
-Paul

Hello Paul,

Thanks for the information. I’d noticed earlier that the southern polar cap appeared to be shrinking. There were some transparency issues with my last observation. I suspected that some areas near the equator showed some evidence of localised dust storms as they appeared to lack clarity. But I wasn’t sure if it was the conditions as excess humidity is a problem at this time of the year.

Telescopes: One Newtonian, three Maksutov Cassegrains, seven refractors, and a large SCT.

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