Frank J MELILLO #210

Letters to the Editor

from Frank J MELILLO in CMO #210

@ . . . Hopefully, you had a nice Thanksgiving.
Finally, I took my first two images of Mars at 6:00 am Saturday morning. It is only 5.2 arc seconds in diameter, so Mars appears small. But, the details are quite clearly seen in red light Wr. #25. You can see the North Polar Cap surrounded by a dark band (Utopia area), the tip of Syrtis Mj on the eastern limb (right), Mare Cimmerium is along the southern limb and perhaps Stymphalius Lacus is nearly in the center.
It was taken with a Celestron 8-inch using the adaptive optics at f/25. The seeing was 6-7 on the ALPO scale. Both images were taken at 1 sec. exposure with a red filter Wr. #25. The CCD camera is a Starlight Xpress MX-5 16-bit. So far, Mars is looking normal with dust-free.

(29 Nov 1998 email)

@ . . . Here are some CCD images of Mars in red light Wr. #25. The seeing was so-so, 6 on the ALPO scale. The details are well seen and especially around the NPC. The NPC itself does looks alot smaller than it should at this Ls longitude. The Tharsis Region (volcanic area) at CM = 100 degrees looks quite dark in the center of the disk.
Good News. I am getting an infrared blockage filter for ultraviolet imaging and hopefully, I should start it soon!!

(13 Dec 1998 email)

Frank J MELILLO (NY, USA) : FrankJ12@aol.com