Mike MATTEI #218

Letters to the Editor

from Mike MATTEI in CMO #218

@ . . . . I hope a lot more observers of Mars have better seeing than I. It is now three weeks past opposition and we still do not have any seeing. Last night I was able to see for the first time Syrtis Major, M. Acidalium, Meridiani S. but with seeing greater than 10 arc sec, which as you can see will not show any detail on the planet. This has been going on for at least a month befoer opposition. We have very warm days in the 70's F, and clod nights in the 30's to 40's. With all of the radiation cooling going on at night with clear skys the seeing in around 2-4 ALPO scale. My ccd camera will not take exposures faster than .1 sec to freeze the seeing, no matter, you can not see detail anyway.
I have been enjoying CMO for the information of this opposition as well as checking the web for images.
Hope all is well with you. Thanks once again for sending CMO.

(16 May 1999)

Mike MATTEI (NY, USA) : mmattei@ma.ultranet.com