On the date that this image was taken, Mars was a bright magnitude -2.4, and looked like a UFO hovering to the southeast. Mars was about 22.8 arc-seconds in diameter. The closest approach to Mars will occur on August 27.
Syrtis Major had just crossed the central meridian in this image. The white area on the right is the southern polar ice cap. Some clouds were detectable over the northern polar ice cap (on the left in this image). The central meridian was 296.5 when the image was taken.
This image was taken from my backyard in Scottsdale, Arizona. I used a ToUcam web cam on a FCT-150 refractor with a Televue PowerMate 4x barlow, resulting in a focal length of about f28. The images were aligned and stacked with Registax.
Constellation: Aquarius
RA: 22h 55m 42.6s Dec: -13d 36' 31"
August 3, 2003
Image by Sid Leach
Scottsdale, Arizona
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