Mars – October 13, 2005 – 06:00-06:45 UT

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East and West noted in the sketch are Martian E/W, not celestial E/W.

Observation Notes:
I wanted to catch Solis Lacus this evening, and it was in a good position. Seeing was pretty shoddy, and I was having some contrast issues with my 10 mm eyepiece. The South Polar Cap showed up intermittently, as a bright button with a slight collar around it. I wasn’t able to see the polar hood like I did the past couple observations. The morning limb had a thin border of haze that thickened around what I think is Zephiria. I thought it was interesting that the evening limb displayed a very wide, thin haze. I hadn’t noticed this before. It seemed thickest around and below Aurorae Sinus and edging into Tharsis. Most of the sketch was done without filters. But then I inserted the #21A Orange filter which brought out some lighter albedo features in the northern hemisphere. The #80A filter really popped out the vast amount of haze on the evening limb and the thin but still substantial haze on the morning side. While I noticed the haziness as a light smoky gray on the evening side, I used blue in the sketch to emulate what the #80A filtered view threw at me.