The Dutch Observatory » Mars

tramakers — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 14:39:32 +0000

Today, the Walton Tribune carried my feelings and emotions during the launch of Curiosity to a larger audience by publishing an article and a picture of me in front of the countdown clock. Click here to read the article. Curiosity is well on its way now. In fact a fellow Solar System Ambassador Patrick Wiggins in Utah caught it on its way to Mars on the 27th when it was close at the junctior of Monoceros, Hydra and Canis Minor. Click the image to see it move through the field of view.

tramakers — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 23:32:17 +0000

Saturday morning I did not hear the alarm clock, but managed to get to the pickup site at the Space Coast Stadium at 5:45 a.m. I got on bus 10 out of 60 and we got to our viewing site at the Banana Creek viewing area next to the Apollo/Saturn building around 6:45. It was still relative dark and rain clouds were abundant. We received two short showers about 2 hours before the launch. The sunrise was very nice through the thick clouds. The count down clock (being about 37 minutes fast) was stopped at -2:00:00 and again at -4 minutes. NASA Administrator Bolden gave a speech and 2 minutes before launch the 3500 viewers at our location sang the National Anthem, which brought the emotions high. As the clock approached 0 you could hear a pin drop, but as the rocket did lift off, a roar released the silence as everyone kept their eyes on the Atlas 5 with Curiosity on top. The roar of the Atlas 5 with 4 solid rocket boosters was not as loud as with the space shuttle, but seeing the fire and smoke this close across the water and marshes made this launch unforgettable. A perfect launch. The very high humidity made it a bit murky to make pictures from our site, but I will never forget the emotions in me when Curiosity set of on its voyage to Mars. Click here for some pictures from the time leading up to the launch.

tramakers — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 13:25:38 +0000

Well we left after the launch and the trip home on the Saturday after Thanks giving took us 10 hours! Almost two hours were spend to cover a 20 mile strip before the Florida Turnpike merges with I-75. But we made it.
The launch was spectacular and it was a real experience to see in person what happened accross the water and marshes 4.5 miles away. My son let me use his 200mm zoom lens for my camera, and leaning the camera on the railing of the bleachers of the viewing area, I just kept the shutter button pressed with the camera set on continuous shooting until the camera stopped. (Out of space or power). Here one of the cropped images.

tramakers — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 03:30:36 +0000

All of you who have known me for some time know that I eagerly followed NASA’s Mars Phoenix mission. This led to really wanting to attend the launch of the next Mars mission which has gone through some delays. However, the date has come and “Curiosity” is scheduled to be launched on November 25th at 10:21 a.m. I am very pleased that my official invitation for this launch has arrived today, so we will not be spending Thanksgiving this year at home, but at the Cape.

tramakers — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 15:08:53 +0000

I received an email with some pictures from my niece and her friend in the Netherlands of the close conjunction of Mars, Venus and Saturn (left to right). Gineke and Martin took these pictures when they were on their vacation in Switzerland. Its a very nice composition of the three just before they sink behind the mountains. Martin is also an astronomy amateur and is a member of a “Sterrenwacht” in the Netherlands. The star at 45 degrees to the left and above Mars is Porrima in Virgo. Thanks for sharing Gineke and Martin!!

tramakers — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 15:51:10 +0000

It has been busy since the last meeting at Charlie Elliott. We had several solar and night star parties for some schools and the website needed updating. So I just am getting the time to process the last image which I have not published yet. Here Mars from the evening of April 15th under fairly good conditions while it still was just over 8 arcsec. in size.

tramakers — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 14:31:05 +0000

I’ve been wrestling with my images over the last few weeks. Made a lot of them but could not get them focused right. Finally, I believe I got it resolved or at least it is a lot better. Last night made some images of Mars and Saturn. Mars is now just over 8 arc seconds, the same size it was early last November. A lot of clouds over Tharsis extending into Amazonis

tramakers — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 21:24:40 +0000

I did setup after we came home from visiting a friend and decided to make a series of images of Mars. The weather was nice, and seeing was not too bad, although it went bad at the end. I ended up making 13 images seperated 10 minutes from each other, so it spans 2hours. Click on the thumbnail below for the best image of the series and click here for a two hour Mars rotation animation. You can see the conditions getting bad at the end. Clouds over Aethiopsis and clouds or mist extending beyond Aeria at the preceding limb.

tramakers — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 02:48:49 +0000

My goal for imaging tonight was the International Space Station. However Frank and I missed it somehow. So because the conditions were very good, I changed my plans and changed to Mars and Saturn. These are my first images after Mars drops below 10 degrees.

tramakers — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 02:26:46 +0000

The first night in a long time that we had some good conditions again. Here Mars as it is just a little bigger than 1o arc seconds.