Observations by Month: December
Sketched between 3:00 and 3:30 UTC Dec. 2 2005 Celestron 9.25, binoviewer set up for about 240x
Temp: -16 C Ice Haze then high thin cloud overhead At times, barely 10 stars visible.
Seeing poor to surprizingly okay. Antoniadi: III-IV (hard to judge with thin cloud that leaves a relatively stable image!) Sketch has south to the top and east to the right.Mars looked washed out even during clear moments. The area between Syrtis Major and the limb was the brightest patch. It was even brighter than Hellas which had a distinctly yellowish look. A bright spot in NPH similar to one the other night but wasn't as bright. NPH smaller than two nights ago. Difficult to make out a SPC (it looks too prominent on this sketch). Whole eastern quarter nearest the terminator seemed to be in a haze.
Gerry Smerchanski
Teulon, in Manitoba's Interlake region between Lakes Manitoba and Winnipeg.
Lat. 50.386 N Long. 97.25 W
Summary:
December in the west has been dominated thus far by hazy milky skies and mean temperatures in the -15 to -25 Celsius range. One hopes for even 1 night where anything could be accomplished.
December 10th, tempertures have returned to the plus side of zero but with a turbulent and cloudy sky, you take your chances and grab an observation where and whenever. Mars continues to recede with gibbous phase more pronounced at 95% illumination.
Weather more favorable towards Christmas week, though cold...-10C to -18C, seeing in the west has been II to III on the Antoniadi scale with relatively good transparency. Mars continues to show sharp and varied detail even at 13 to 14 arc seconds, dust activity appears to have died off although some clouds are still apparent.
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