Sketched August 31, 2003 from Anza Borrego State Park in San Diego County. It was 110 degrees in the daytime here, and cooled to the high 90's at night. This sketch made at 12:10 a.m. pacific DST (daylighth savings time) or 07:10 UT August 31. Seeing excellent, transparency LM 6.0.

Date: 08/31/03 Lat 33N, Long 116W, elev. 562 feet	Sketch Time (UT): 7:10, (local time): 12:10 a.m. DST
Central Meridian: 48°	Filters: none
Instrument: 7.1-inch (180mm) f/9 Astro-Physics Starfire Apo refractor.	Distance from earth 0.37 AU, 55.5m km, 34.4m miles
Magnification: (a pair of 16mm) 300x  Zeiss Abbe Orthos plus Zeiss Binoviewer	Transp. 5/6, Seeing 9/10, Antoniadi (I-V):  I
Apparent Size: 25.01"	Magnitude: -2.9

I think Chryse is one of the prettiest features on Mars. The ragged edge of Mare Erythraeum above (South) and Niliacus Lacus below (North) are prominent in this sketch. So is Solis Lacus, showing a slightly lighter area on the southern side of the "eye". Prominent haze over the north polar area. This will be the last sketch whil Mars is over 25 arc seconds in diameter. The phase is now 99.79% and in a week or so we'll se a terminator again, but on the other side of the planet!

Details about the sketch: I used my 180mm (7.1-inch diameter) f/9 Astro-Physics EDT refractor, 16mm Zeiss Abbe orthoscopic eyepiece plus binoviewer for 300x. Sketched from Borrego Ssprings, San Diego County August 31, 2003. Longitude 116W Latitude 33N, elevation 562 feet. Seeing 9/10 and transparency 5/6.

Details about Mars: Diameter 25.01 arc seconds (Jupiter is about 30 -50 arc seconds in diameter depending on its distance from earth). Central Meridian 48 - 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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