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Sketched October 10, 2003 from my back deck in San Rafael, CA at 10:30 p.m. pacific DST (daylight savings time) or 05:30 UT October 11. Seeing excellent, transparency LM 4.0 - rising full moon.

Date: 10/11/03 Lat 37N, Long 122W, elev. 200 feet Sketch Time (UT): 5:30, (local time): 10:30 p.m. DST
Central Meridian: 13° Filters: #82A, #80, #21, #25, #11
Instrument: 4-inch (105mm) f/6 Astro-Physics Traveler Apo refractor. Distance from earth 0.50 AU, 75m km, 47m miles
Magnification: (6mm) 252x  Zeiss Abbe Ortho combined with a 2.4x AP Barcon Barlow Transp. 4/6, Seeing 8/10, Antoniadi (I-V):  I
Apparent Size: 18.6" Magnitude: -1.8

Details about Mars: Diameter 18.6 arc seconds (Jupiter is about 30 -50 arc seconds in diameter depending on its distance from earth). Central Meridian 359 - the imaginary line passing through the planetary poles of rotation and bisecting the planetary disk, and is used to determine the longitude during an observing session. Mars' phase is now 93%.

Mare Serpentis is rotating off the limb as is Hellas. Sinus Meridiani is still near the central meridian in this sketch. Two subtle lighter areas - Agyrre I and Pyrrhae Regio - are surrounded with Mare Erythraeum, Protei Regio and Bosporos Gemmatus - dark areas on the terminator. Mare Serpentis snakes around Hellas. Chryse has nearly completely rotated into view. South of Chryse is Margaritifer Sinus, a jagged arrow of dark color pointing nearly at the north polar area. On the north edge of Chryse is Nicialus Lacus.

Filters: I tried all my filters tonight. The #21 orange filter helped bring out features the best. I observed Mars for about a half hour before each sketch to understand what I was seeing, and check maps, etc. Mars is 30 percent smaller and 13 million miles farther away than at Opposition in late August, but still a wonderful object to observe and study.

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