Sketchbook from 2005 closest approach. Monrovia, CA October 31, 2005. Sketched in the driveway at our home in Monrovia. For Mars closest approach on October 29/30 we organized a sidewalk astronomy event at our local stomping grounds, Monrovia's Old Town Library Park. Over 200 folks came out between 9 p.m. and 12:30 a.m. for looks at our neighbor planet.

The next night, October 30/31 we stayed home and set up our Astro Physics f/9 180EDT refractor with Zeiss Abbe Orthoscopic eyepieces, and binoviewer, the same equipment we brought out to the sidewalk. In these two sketches North is up. Syrtis Major, the triangular feature is pointing to the north pole. Blue polar haze was visible over the north pole area in both sketches. Chryse, a light colored feature on the limb was much larger than I expected it to look, and I think that there was dust storm activity obscuring the surface view. Many other areas looked lighter or duller than previous observations. I'm sure I'll add to this writeup once I see some of the excellent imagers results to compare against my modest sketch.

Mars CM 330 by Jane Houston Jones 10/31/05 8:05 UTC, 12:05 a.m. PDT

Mars CM 340 10/31/05 8:45 UTC, 12:45 a.m. PDT

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