Mars on Aug 21, 2007
Image of Mars at 5:42 am MDT early this morning. Mars is still fairly small, only 7.7 arc sec across but will be getting closer and larger as we progress to opposition on Christmas eve. The Mars central meridian was about 135° when the image was aquired. Image is approximately in NW orientation (north up,west right). The north pole of Mars is towards the upper right. A hint of bluish haze of the north polar hood can be seen can be seen in the image. The faint marking on the surface near the equator is probably Mare Sirenum.
Images taken with Celestron Nexstar11 telescope, Televue 2.5X Powermate, and Phillips Toucam 840K webcam. Location was Louisville, CO, the sky was clear, no wind, temperature about 60°F, transparency very good, turbulence about 5/10. Aligned and stacked with Registax4.