Mars-Second Dark Feature
Taken by Mark Schmidt on October 31, 2020 @
Racine County, WI USA
Click photo for larger image
| |
Camera Used: Unavailable Unavailable
Exposure Time: Unavailable
Aperture: Unavailable
ISO: Unavailable
Date Taken: 2020:10:31 11:10:55
|
|
| More images
Details:
After 20 days of clouds, rain and poor seeing conditions I finally had a clear night to image Mars again. When I completed my imaging session, I immediately started to process the images. I had no Idea about the treat I was in for but getting a treat was fitting considering it was the early hours of Halloween. A mystery dark feature near one of the Martian volcanoes was first brought to our attention by Max Teodorescu of Magurele, Ilfov, Romania a little over a week ago. The dark feature that appeared on his images acquired on October 22, 2020, now seems to have a companion. Both features are near Arsia Mons (a shield volcano), but the newest dark feature is perpendicular to the original one. Its length is in a north-south direction. It will be interesting to find out what these features are. Here are two composite images that show these features. The features are circled on one of the images.
The designation “CM” followed by a number in degrees written under each image stands for Central Meridian and is the same as “degrees longitude” on earth.
I used a Celestron 14” Schmidt Cassegrain telescope and a ZWO ASI290MC imaging camera for the images. South is up on all images per the Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers (A.L.P.O.) preferred format.
Photographer's website:
https://NA
|
|
|
