Brent's Mars Sketches

I like to represent Mars with sets of three sketches on a single sheet of paper: an unfiltered view straight through the eyepiece, another view with a filter intended to maximize contrast and clarity of surface features (currently a #21 Orange) and a third view with a filter for bringing out atmospheric details (currently a #82A Pale Blue). So far, I only have one set worth posting but I intend to observe and sketch the planet every chance I get over the next three months.

May 8, 2001

#82A Pale Blue
No Filter
#21 Orange
CM=287.30
CM=284.87
CM=281.21
0950 UTC
0940 UTC
0925 UTC

Diameter=15.5"
Phase=.9496


This was drawn around 5:30AM on the morning of May 8, 2001 using an 8" SCT with 6mm and 9mm Orthoscopic eyepieces and a mirror star diagonal. There were thin cirrus clouds throughout the observation and occasionally lower, thicker clouds would obscure the planet completely. The seeing was pretty good, as often happens on warm, hazy, humid days with poor transparancy.

The dotted lines on the unfiltered and blue filtered views represent bright, actinic white fringes on the planet's limb. After a discussion with Bobby Middleton, I believe these are "Limb Hazes" since he captured similar ones on CCD images taken just a couple of hours later that same morning.

May 12, 2001


CM=249
Diameter=16.2"
Phase=.9572

Here's my first (and perhaps only) attempt at representing the colors I observed. The colors on this sketch are as subtle as I can get with colored pencils but are still much exaggerated compared to the visual image. The other problem is that I've yet to figure out how to draw a decent-looking black background for my sketches. On this one I tried a charcoal pencil, smoothed with a stump. It looks terrible. So I guess it's back to gray pencil sketches on a white background from now on.

The left-hand sketch is the view with a #82A Pale Blue filter. The right-hand one is the unfiltered view. Seeing was very bad and as Mars sank toward the horizon it was entering a cloud bank. I didn't have time to do an Orange-filtered sketch. Through the Pale Blue filter, the surface of the planet was white and the darker area was blue-gray. Unfiltered, most of the planet was pale yellow-orange and the darker areas were still blue-gray. The blue-white fringe along the Northern limb was continuous in the unfiltered view but with the Pale Blue filter it had two sections. A small, distinct section near the pole was very, very bright with the filter. This observation was done in a few brief cloud-free intervals between 0925 and 0955 UTC on May 12 (around 5:30AM local time).

May 14, 2001

#82A Pale Blue
No Filter
#21 Orange
CM=192.36
CM=194.80
CM=197.23
0705 UTC
0715 UTC
0925 UTC

Diameter=16.5"
Phase=.9608


In order to get a look at a different Longitude, I got up around 2:00AM on the morning of May 14, 2001 rather than 4:30AM as I had done on a few previous mornings. I used an 8" SCT with a 6mm University Optics orthoscopic eyepiece, a Televue mirror star diagonal and #82A and #21 eyepiece color filters. At this earlier hour, Mars was positioned over a number of nearby houses which I believe contributed to the very poor seeing. There were a few thin clouds about but they only obscure the planet for a minute or two of the 50 minute observation period.

Here's a comparison of my "No Filter" sketch with a B&W output from "Mars Previewer II".

The following comments were posted to the Shallow Sky Mailing List, so if I receive any edification I'll update this entry...
There seemed to be a couple of features that I couldn't quite resolve in the lighter area on the northern half of the planet's face. If I would concentrate on one spot and wait for a moment of better seeing, sometimes a darker area would almost resolve. But then if I kept watching, a minute later the exact same spot would momentarily appear but as a lighter spot. Is this just a trick of the eye from straining to stare at one tiny spot in a flickering, smeared image?

I ended up sketching a dark blur at one of these spots. Later, when I consulted a map, it seems likely it was Elysium which should be a light spot in either unfiltered or orange-filtered light. Some moments it looked lighter, more often darker. It may have all been wishful thinking anyway.

Sketching Technique

I make very basic sketches in real time at the telescope using just a clipboard, a sheet of paper and a pencil with HB or F lead. Some time later, either right after I go inside or later that evening before bed, I make permanent drawings in my bound sketch book which are then scanned in and posted here. Since my telescope uses a mirror star diagonal, I draw Mars with South at or near the bottom and the Preceding limb to the left. When I scan the sketch, I mirror image it and then rotate it 180 degrees so the on-line version is comparable with other people's CCD images and drawings which are standardized as "South Up and Preceding (Celestial West) Limb Left".

Seeing Colors

I haven't tried drawing in color, mostly because I don't tend to see a lot of colors through a telescope. Typically, Mars looks white or perhaps just the faintest bit yellowish-white with the darker features having a blueish-gray tint. The only times I get a reddish or orangeish impression of the planet is when seeing it as a tiny dot with my unaided eye or, strangely enough, when I look at it through a telescope during daylight hours. Jupiter is similar in that it appears in shades of pure white, creamy white or gray to me whereas other people see blues and pinks and occasionally even other colors. I guess my eyes just don't work like most people's.

You can contact me at BHutto@BellSouth.Net.