Saturday night I headed up to Mt. Pinos and met up with folks from the LA Astronomical Society to catch some views of Mars while it was still rather close. Best view of Mars I’ve ever had, period. Admittedly, not too surprising since there were a couple of 24″ reflectors/artillery pieces there.
Tried to sketch the view and this is more or less how it looked. Both polar caps were visible along with quite a bit of surface detail. I *thought* I saw some detail in the south polar cap, but that was straining the limits of my poor vision.
The most amusing part of the night? The displaced ravers who were interloping in trying to find their rave somewhere out in the Los Padres. You could hear the rave – just couldn’t find it.
Oh yeh, definitely a beatific night. In the absolute darkness on the ground, I was kinda amused by the way one could tell the astronomers from the ones there for the ‘mars star party’ was hearing: ‘Turn off your lights!’ or ‘Friendster?’
A few of us managed to find this enthusiastic solo astronomer that pointed out all these amazing celestials, to answering all our amateur questions that he explained in a fascinating layman’s way for us, to leading us into an interesting conversations about the existence of extraterrestrials, the ten dimensions, God, time, etc.
I can’t wait until I’m 60,031 years old so I can do it again.
Nice sketch Chris! Thanks for sharing it. I’ve been stuck under stinkin’ clouds for way over a week. 🙁