| Mars
on August 10, 2003 |
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Mars
on August 16, 2003 |
|
Mars
on August 24, 2003 |
|
Mars
on August 27, 2003 |
|
Mars
Mania! |
| Mars
Near Oppostion in September 2003 |
|
Image
Stacking Demonstration |
In late August and early September of 2003,
Mars came into opposition, its closest point to Earth. Over
the weeks, I watched mars gradually brighten until it became
a bright orange ember in the sky. Two days before mars's
closest approach, I thought I'd stop by the University of
Wisconsin's Washburn observatory in downtown Madison on
Observatory Drive. I thought that there might be a small
group or perhaps a few dozen people interested in seeing
mars through the university's 15 inch Alvin Clarke refractor.
Instead, when I got there, I found the most amazing thing.
There was a huge mob of 500 to 1000 people standing in line
to see mars! I could hardly believe it. I realized that
most of these people would never get a chance to peer through
the university's telescope so I headed home to get my humble
8 inch cassegrain scope and haul it up to the hill so I
could share mars with the eager masses. Over the next 3
nights, Doren, Kelti, and I spent the evenings showing mars
to people. One interesting thing was that I found a great
variety of different descriptions of Mars' color. Some people
said that it was bright orange or reddish orange yet others
claimed that it looked yellow, pink, and even colorless!
