"A Close Encounter with Mars"
N.A.W. August 29th/30th 2003
Worth Hill Observatory, Dorset. UK.
Although skies looked none too promising at first, we had success in showing 500 people views of Mars over the course of two nights. Members of Wessex Astronomical Society brought along many telescopes, and by 10.30 pm on both nights we were getting good views of Mars, although the seeing conditions were not ideal.
A variety of telescopes were available, ranging from the 20" Newtonian in the observatory, to Meade LX-200, and 8" - 14" Dobsonians. The famous 8.25" Captain Ainslie's Jack Knife Refractor (foreground image above) had also recently been recommissioned - images through this telescope take some beating!
The evening started with open air talks on "Mars" by David Strange, and "Summer Skies" by Bob Mizon.
We were also able to run the excellent historical "Mars" presentation produced for N.A.W. and narrated by Heather Couper.
The skies obligingly cleared by 11 pm and although there was intermittent cloud at times, most people were able to see Mars. In the observatory we also had grand views of the Great Hercules Cluster M13, but dealing with such a large number of visitors meant there was little time to observe many other objects.
During the early hours of the next morning we had first light images through a webcam on the 20".
Image to the right is a "stacked" sequence from a video clip. It has not been contrast stretched as it represents our telescopic views which we experienced tonight. Seeing "live" full colour images of Mars and to be able to present that on a big screen for mass viewing is a sure fire way to promote the magic of astronomy to everyone!