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Sketched July 21, 2003 from my back deck 4:30 a.m. pacific DST (daylight savings time) or 11:30 UT. Poor observing night thanks to the remnants of Hurricane Claudette, which brought tropical humidity and clouds.

Date: 07/21/03 Lat 37.6N, Long 122W, elev. 200 feet Sketch Time (UT): 11:30, (local time): 4:30 a.m. DST
Central Meridian: 119° Filters: none
Instrument: 4-inch (105mm) f/6 Astro-Physics Traveler Apo refractor. Distance from earth 0.46 AU, 69m km, 43m miles
Magnification: 252x  (6mm) and 151x  (10mm) Zeiss Abbe Ortho combined with a 2.4x AP Barcon Barlow Transp. 1/6, Seeing 2/10, Antoniadi (I-V):  V
Apparent Size: 20.2" Magnitude: -1.9

This sketch is a good example of what can be seen in many small aperture (less than 8-inches in diameter) telescopes at moderately high power - not alot of detail, but some nice markings.

Mars, in this sketch is reversed N/S. South is shown at the top of the image. The south polar cap is the prominent feature. Terminator is where daylight ends and evening begins. The terminator is on the left and the planet is rotating left to right. In my sketches the planet rotates martian east (left) to west (right) to match most other images and sketches. Look for features rotating from left to right in the drawings from night to night.

Details about Mars: Diameter 20.2 arc seconds (Jupiter is about 30 -50 arc seconds in diameter depending on its distance from earth). Central Meridian 119 - 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.

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