Observations made in the constellation Aries

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Observations made in the constellation Aries:

Moon (Moon, est. mag -5, est. to be in Aries)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 6-inch Dobsonian reflector   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: fair   Seeing: fair
Time: Sun Apr 26 00:25:00 2009 UT   Obs. no.: 1821

This evening, my friend Steve Borer, my brother Anthony Amato and I met at the West Haven beach to see if we could see the 21 hour old crescent moon. After fifteen minutes of trying to locate this crescent, we were rewarded with a view of one of the most slender crescent moon any of us has seen. We were easily able to see Saber's Beads which are also known as Bailey's Beads which are seen during total solar eclipses. In both the 6" dob and binoculars the crescent was something to behold. We also had the plesure of seeing the planet Mercury which was a waning crescent. Mercury was actually higher in the sky than the moon was. Finally we observed Saturn whos rings are almost edge on. We were able to see four moons of Saturn including Titan and Rhea. Titan looked like an orange disc because of its thick atmosphere. Another great night of astronomy.

Comet (Comet, est. mag 5.5, est. to be in Aries)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 50-mm binoculars   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: fair   Seeing: fair
Time: Wed Jan 2 01:50:00 2008 UT   Obs. no.: 1749

Happy new year. I just had my first look at Comet 8P/Tuttle with my 10X50 binoculars. This comet is distinctly greenish and I was not able to see any tail on it. I'll try to get another glimpse of it tomorrow night.

Mars (Planet, est. mag .6, est. to be in Aries)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 127-mm other   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: fair   Seeing: fair
Time: Thu Jul 26 07:30:00 2007 UT   Obs. no.: 1685

This morning I observed Mars with my 127mm MAK. Mars continues to look bright yellow in both my scope and my naked eye. This means the dust storm is still going strong on the 70% waxing gibbous planet. One encouraging thing is I can now glimpse some Martian features through the dust storm. The reason may be the dust storm easing or Mars is getting closer or maybe a combination of both reasons. The first sign that the Martian dust storm is ending will be when the bright yellow color of Mars will start to have an orange tinge to it, even with the naked eye.

Mars (Planet, est. mag -1.0, est. to be in Aries)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 127-mm other   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: fair   Seeing: fair
Time: Wed Dec 21 22:00:00 2005 UT   Obs. no.: 1446

This evening, I observed Mars with my 127mm MAK. Mars is really shrinking in size and it is becoming a waning gibbous. However, there are still things to observe on Mars. The north polar cap is now in view now that the north polar hood has disapated. On the eastern edge of the planet, I was able to see considerable limb haze and a thicker cloudy area. The Hallas Basin is also showing as a white area near the south pole. For the past couple of weeks it has been reported that the southern hemisphere has considerable dust and haze in the air. Because of this, the dark areas have a fuzzy look about them. I didn't realize why the dark areas looked fuzzy until I read the article.

Mars (Planet, est. mag -0.1, est. to be in Aries)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 127-mm other   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: fair   Seeing: good
Time: Mon Dec 12 22:30:00 2005 UT   Obs. no.: 1433

This Evening, I observed Mars with my 127mm MAK. The first thing I noticed was how very white the Hallas Basin is. It is really standing out now. Syrtis Major was also easy to see. Also the north polar cap is now in view. Since Mars' north polar region is not tilted toward us, only a small portion of the north polar cap is in view.As we pull away from Mars, it is easy to see how the size of the planet is shrinking.

Moon (Moon, est. mag -8, est. to be in Aries)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: naked eye   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: fair   Seeing: fair
Time: Mon Dec 12 01:00:00 2005 UT   Obs. no.: 1431

This evening, I observed the moon and Mars standing together just two degrees apart. That alone was great, but as an added bonus, clouds started to cover the moon and Mars which created a beautiful blue and red corona around the moon. The blue part of the corona surrounded the moon and the red part of the corona surrounded the blue part of the corona. Mars was inside the red part of the corona. This was one of the most beautiful astronomical sights I have ever seen.

Mars (Planet, est. mag -2, est. to be in Aries)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 127-mm other   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: fair   Seeing: fair
Time: Sun Nov 20 00:00:00 2005 UT   Obs. no.: 1403

This evening, I observed Mars with my 127mm MAK.I observed some dark areas on Mars which I could not identify. The north polar hood is still in place and it is mostly white with a slight tinge of blue in it. The eastern limb of Mars had significant limb haze that extended from the north polar hood down to about the equator. The western limb of Mars showed no limb haze. Later on, I observed Saturn. The only feature I saw was the dark looking north polar hood. I also saw to moons of Saturn.

Mars (Planet, est. mag -2, est. to be in Aries)
Observer: Joe Caggiano (e-mail: jcaggiano@mindspring.com)
Instrument: 6-inch equatorial reflector   Location: Glenside, Pa, USA
Light pollution: light   Transparency: excellent   Seeing: excellent
Time: Fri Nov 18 01:15:00 2005 UT   Obs. no.: 1402

My viewing of Mars last night was phenominal! Starting at 5:15 PM, I spied Venus still pretty high in the southwest but my neighbors trees (at about 100 ft. tall) still blocked it. I had to view through the branches. Venus was VERY bright and appeared in a Gibbous phase. Since I was waiting for Mars, I took a shot of it (again, through the trees so it looks like the image was chewed aroung the edges) and put it on my website. This is Venus at 203x. Afterwards I moved on to Mars. For 3 hours I viewed Mars and tried time and again to get a good shot of it. Frustration continually built with the neighbors and their backyard lights, another neighbors constantly barking dog and my telehpone ringing. Finally I went inside about 7:30 because the image was still low enough over my roof that it was still boiling. At 8:15 I came out and viewed. AWESOME is an understatement. I pushed the power up to 406x with a barlow lens and actually got a decent shot (also on my webpage). The South Polar Cap was visible, though fleeting. The whole Southern Hemisphere was again shrouded in a blue hood. Mare Cronium all the way to Margaritifer Sinus was visible including Protei Regio, Mare Erythraeum and Argyroporus as the dark regions. In the peach-colored Northern Hemisphere, I saw Mnemonia Tharsis, Tempe, and Tractus Albus. I waited 3 hours to see that view and I would do it again in a heartbeat. I now have the best picture of Mars I have taken for the next 13 years! Quite a memorable occasion. The pics can be viewed at HTTP://home.mindspring.com/~jcaggiano/joeshomepage/index.html.

Mars (Planet, est. mag -2.1, est. to be in Aries)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 127-mm other   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: fair   Seeing: fair
Time: Mon Nov 14 00:15:00 2005 UT   Obs. no.: 1398

This evening, I observed Mars with my 127mm MAK. I believe the land features I observed were Mare Erythraeum, Margaritieer Sinus and Mare Acidalium. It looks like the north polar hood has increased again. Its colar is almost bluish white. Up to now, I thought it had completely disapated. There was very little limb haze visible. On the night before the moon Mars conjunction, I measured 14 degrees of separation between them with my alledade. We'll see how close they come together tomorrow.

This evening, I observed Mars with my 127mm MAK. with a red filter, I observed the dark regions Aonis Sinus and Bosporos. The very bright area near the south pole was Argyre. It was showing very well. With a green filter, I was able to see some limb haze and the small section of the north polar cap that is tipped favorbly towards us.

Mars (Planet, est. mag -2.1, est. to be in Aries)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 127-mm other   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: fair   Seeing: poor
Time: Tue Nov 8 01:00:00 2005 UT   Obs. no.: 1394

This evening, I observed Mars with my 127mm MAK. The front tip of the north polar ice cap is still visible. If the northern hemishere was tipped our way, we would be able to see a huge polar cap. With a green filter, I also observed a large patch of clouds on Mars' eastern limb. I thought I also saw a cloudy patch near the south pole of Mars. Limb haze was easily seen on both the eastern and western limbs of Mars. I believe I saw Mare Cimmerium and Mare Sirenim with a red filter.

Mars (Planet, est. mag -2, est. to be in Aries, Est. RaDec 40)
Observer: Joe Caggiano (e-mail: jcaggiano@mindspring.com)
Instrument: 6-inch equatorial reflector   Location: Glenside, Pa, USA
Light pollution: light   Transparency: excellent   Seeing: good
Time: Thu Nov 3 02:45:00 2005 UT   Obs. no.: 1392

Tonight's viewing was very crisp as Mars rose above the boiling atmosphere by this time. A blue hue still covered half the disk. No polar caps visible but small patches of albedo markings were visible. Once again I did not have time to check the martian atlas to see what the markings were but the view seemed similar as some of my previous postings.

Mars (Planet, est. mag -2.3, est. to be in Aries)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 12.5-inch Dobsonian reflector   Location: Milford, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: fair   Seeing: fair
Time: Thu Nov 3 02:00:00 2005 UT   Obs. no.: 1390

This evening, my friends Mike Dzubaty, Steve Borer and I observed Mars with Mikes 12.5" dob. With a green filter we once again feel that part of the north polar ice cap is now visable. Since Mars' north polar region is now tipped unfavorably towards us, we can only see the part of the cap that is turned towards us. That part of the cap also looked like it had melt lines around it. The south polar cap is still very small and it does not appear to be shrinking any further. With a red filter, we could clearly see several dark colored areas. I believe the areas were Mare Cimmerium and Mare sirenum. There was a brighter area which I believe was Elysium.

Mars (Planet, est. mag -2.3, est. to be in Aries)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 127-mm other   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: fair   Seeing: fair
Time: Tue Nov 1 01:45:00 2005 UT   Obs. no.: 1389

This evening, I observed Mars with my 127mm MAK. With a green filter, I observed what looked like a large area of clouds on the eastern limb of Mars. Also, I think the north polar cap is beginning to show through the diminishing north polar hood. If I'm right, the north polar ice cap should be showing clearly within a week. If I'm wrong, I will look like a goober. The dark areas of Mars can still be seen easily and the lighter areas still have a peach color to them.

Mars (Planet, est. mag -2.26, est. to be in Aries)
Observer: Joe Caggiano (e-mail: jcaggiano@mindspring.com)
Instrument: 6 -inch equatorial reflector   Location: Glenside, Pa, USA
Light pollution: light   Transparency: excellent   Seeing: good
Time: Mon Oct 31 02:00:00 2005 UT   Obs. no.: 1387

Mars looked awesome tonight! Faint markings could be seen all over the planet (though I did not have time to run the program to tell me what I was seeing). There was still a blue polar hood visible over the southern hemisphere confirmed by my father who had stopped by to visit. Also showed my father NGC 869 and NGC 884, M31 (which through 15x70 binos he claimed he saw M32 and M110) and M45. The Dumbell and the Ring Nebulas had already moved beyond the tall trees by the time he had showed up.

Mars (Planet, est. mag -2.0, est. to be in Aries)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 127-mm other   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: fair   Seeing: fair
Time: Sun Oct 30 23:45:00 2005 UT   Obs. no.: 1385

This evening, I observed Mars with my 127mm MAK. With a red filter, I was able to observe several dark areas on Mars. I then switched to a green filter. The south polar cap can only be seen with a green filter by me. I believe the cap is now as small as it will get. The limb haze is now on both sides of Mars. The limb haze doesn't look very impressive to me. Finally, without the filter, the north polar hood still looks bluish white. It still looks to me like it is very slowly diminishing. Most of Mars still has a peach color to it with a telescope. It also has a yellow orange look to it with the naked eye. This means the new dust storm that started is not becoming global.

Mars (Planet, est. mag -2.0, est. to be in Aries)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 127-inch other   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: fair   Seeing: fair
Time: Thu Oct 27 01:00:00 2005 UT   Obs. no.: 1379

This evening, I observed Mars with my 127mm MAK. With a red filter, I was able to see a long area of dark areas accross the face of Mars. It was hard for me to identify some areas except for Syrtis Major. The long area next to Syrtis Major looked to be Mare Tyrrhemin. I then put on a green filter to see what clouds I might be able to see. The limb haze is very obvious and still seems to connect the two poles. The green filter allowed me to observe the tiny south polar cap. I think it is still shrinking. The north polar hood seems to be dissapating very slowly. Its color now appears to be bluish white. If this polar hood is really dissapating, we may get a chance to see the north polar cap. Without a filter, the light areas of Mars have a peach color.

Mars (Planet, est. mag -2, est. to be in Aries)
Observer: Joe Caggiano (e-mail: jcaggiano@mindspring.com)
Instrument: 6 -inch equatorial reflector   Location: Glenside, Pa, USA
Light pollution: light   Transparency: good   Seeing: excellent
Time: Mon Oct 24 02:00:00 2005 UT   Obs. no.: 1378

Due to the rain throughout most of the weekend I could only view on Sunday night. Started viewing at 9:00 PM. Observed M27, M57, M31 and M32, NGC 869 & 884, M45 and Mars. Started with the Dumbell Nebula. At 30x it was bright and easily spotted with my 15x70 binos as a circular smudge. Brought the telescope to bear which revealed a larger smudge. Again disappointment was the key word. I could not make out the �apple core�. Viewed at 30x. Moved on to M57 which again was very pleasing. Best power to view was 75x. It was easier to view tonight than last week�s viewing. Moving on to M31, I easily noticed the brighter of its 2 companions. M31 was bright and elliptical as is typical whenever I view this galaxy. No dust lanes were visible as I lack the aperature. I am envious of the large aperature telescopes that can pick out individual star clusters and dust lanes within other galaxies. I then moved on to the Double Cluster, NGC 869 & 884. Tonight was pristine as I could easily make out a limiting magnitude of better than 12 with these clusters at 30x. I then moved on to the highlight of the night, Mars. Once again, a stunning view revealing a T-shaped marking on the disk. I was viewing Sinus Sabaeus as a long dark �bridge� extending to the north (the bottom of the �T�) Moab and Aeria were bright areas in the Northern hemisphere pink in color. Dominating the southern hemisphere (within visibility) were Mare Serpentis, Iapygia Virdis, Syrtis Major & Minor and Mare Tyrrenhum. These southern regions had a definite blue hue to them at both 203x with a filter and 75x without a filter. No polar caps visible nor was Hellas visible. Ended the night at 9:40 PM at low power on M45 which barely fit in my FOV at 30x.

This evening, I observed Mars with my 127mm MAK and a red filter. It now looks like the dust storm is growing larger. To me, the dust storm looks like it is covering a large area of the northern hemishere. Another sign of the storm enlarging, is Mars now looks very yellow with the naked eye. It seems to have lost its orange tinge. Without the red filter, I could see the north polar hood. The hood now looks blue green and it doesn't seem like it will disapate soon so we can see the north polar cap. After finally seeing the south polar cap for the first time in a long time during my last observation, I couldn't even glimpse it this time around. So far, the dust storm has not hindered my observations of Mars' dark areas.

This evening, I observed Mars with my 127mm MAK. With my red filter, I was able to observe the dust storm on Mars once again, but with greater difficulty. I don't think the storm has expanded yet but time and more observations will tell. After I took the red filter off, I took another look at the planet. Once again, I saw no sign of the dust storm. However, I finally got my first glimpse of the south pole in over a month. For some unknown reason, I was able to see it clearly for the first time in a long time. It is very small and it continues to shrink. I also noticed that the north polar hood may be dissipating. If this is true, then the north polar cap will soon become visible. Again, only time and more observations will tell. Finally, the limb haze seems to be getting more obvious. Also, the moon and Mars had a nice conjuction the last two nights.

Mars (Planet, est. mag -2, est. to be in Aries)
Observer: Joe Caggiano (e-mail: jcaggiano@mindspring.com)
Instrument: 6 -inch equatorial reflector   Location: Glenside, Pa, USA
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: good   Seeing: excellent
Time: Wed Oct 19 02:45:00 2005 UT   Obs. no.: 1373

Tonight's viewing was the best yet for Mars! Using a combination of a neutral density and Planetary Contrast Booster, a triangular albedo structure could be easily seen covering the majority of the planet's disk at 203x. I continually spot Mare Erythraeum due to the Martian day being similar to ours. This time I also spotted Margaritifer Sinus to the west. The viewing was so well that the regions could be captured on my Meade Lunar / Planetary Imager without using a barlow (the LPI alone is 125x). Also viewed M31, M57 and NGC 869 and 884. Tried to spot Uranus but there was too much light to the south. M31 was viewed early in the night (7:30 EST)so there was so much light pollution I could not even pick out M32 nor M110. The Ring (M57) appeared rather easy at 75x but could not go higher on power for I would lose it in the glare. The Double Cluster in Perseus yielded 5 to 6 dozen starts in the 10 to 11th magnitude. All things considered a pretty good night.

This evening, I observed Mars with my 127mm MAK. Several amateur astronomers have reported a new dust storm developing in the Chryse region of Mars. I attached a red filter to my eyepiece and observed Mars at 120X. Without the red filter, I was not able to see a dust storm, but with a red filter, the duststorm was very easy to see. It was a bright area which looked the same as a picture on spaceweather.com. Compared to the picture, the dust area seems to be growing larger. Anyone with a red filter should have little trouble finding this dust event on Mars.

Mars (Planet, est. mag -2, est. to be in Aries)
Observer: Joe Caggiano (e-mail: jcaggiano@mindspring.com)
Instrument: 6 -inch equatorial reflector   Location: Glenside, Pa, USA
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: good   Seeing: good
Time: Tue Oct 18 02:30:00 2005 UT   Obs. no.: 1371

Viewing was difficult tonight with the location of the nearly full moon. Observed Mare Erythraeum region at 203x with both a neutral density filter and a planetary booster in combination in order to draw out details on Mars' surface. It worked suprisingly well considering the ever increasing glare from the moon. The surface markings were much easier to see so that I did not need to use averted vision. Still no polar cap visible.

Mars (Planet, est. mag -2.0, est. to be in Aries)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 6-inch Dobsonian reflector   Location: Colchester, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: fair   Seeing: fair
Time: Tue Oct 18 01:30:00 2005 UT   Obs. no.: 1370

This evening, my friend, Mike dzubaty and I observed Mars with Mike's 6" dob. Like the previous reports by Joe and Lee, we also observed considerable shading accross Mars' face. I also saw that area Joe descibed called Mare Erythraeum. My map of Mars showed Mare Erythraeum looking just like what we saw in the telescope. I also could not see any trace of the south polar cap. It has melted down plenty during the last month or so. The bluish looking north polar hood continues to hide the north polar cap.

Mars (Planet, est. mag -1.5, est. to be in Aries)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 6-inch Dobsonian reflector   Location: Colchester, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: fair   Seeing: poor
Time: Sun Oct 16 01:30:00 2005 UT   Obs. no.: 1365

This evening, My friends, Steve Borer, Mike Dzubaty and I observed Mars with Steve's 6" dob. The seeing was poor due to windy conditions. The north polar hood still remains in place and it continues to look blue. The limb haze continues to connect the north and south poles on one side of the planet. Because of poor seeing conditions, the dark areas I saw were hard to identify. I do believe I observed Mare Cimmerium and Mare Sirenum. Earlier in the evening, we also observed Venus. Right now Venus looks slightly less than 50% waning gibbous. There was some dark albedo features along the terminator.

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