From Nicolas BIVER
@. . . . . . Here are additional selected drawings
of August
5 and 8, if you want to post them on the CMO web page.
(
@ . . . . . .Those days
Syrtis Major was to cross central meridian of Mars at the time it was close to
transiting from our European longitudes. As you will see on this selection of
drawings I made recently, the northern part of Syrtis Mj is faintly visible,
and I think I was also able to guess darker markings around the location of M. Tyrrhenum
and M. Cimmerium, although there are brighter spots (dust clouds?) affecting
their shapes and generally the contrasts are quite low (I would say that
getting a new look at Saturn and Jupiter with 507 magnification and very good
seeing (25.6-cm telescope) on the 11.2
of August, strongly reinforced the fact that mars features are very faint -
Saturn belts look darker!). For the last week(s) the NPH seemed to have
decreased or been swept away by some dust? Is it just a matter of unfavourable CML or that poles are
getting affected by the dust storm?
As
a reminder, I try to put the full set of my drawings on my web page:
http://wwwusr.obspm.fr/biver/planetnews.html
Clear and Steady skies!
(
Nicolas BIVER (
