Planets

Dear Friend of Lookout Observatory,

Okay, it is a bit of literary license to say that Mars traveled to Lookout Observatory. It is actually light from Mars that has traveled here and been captured at the observatory. But this is exciting to me, and I want to tell you the story of my personal fascination with Mars. But first some background.

History. Much of the world became excited about Mars after the Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli in 1877 observed dark markings on Mars which he called “canali.” This can refer to channels or gullies (which would be natural formations), but was translated into English as “canals,” implying they were artificially constructed. This led to all sorts of ideas about intelligent beings on Mars, who may or may not still be alive, as having built a network of canals to bring water from the polar ice caps to the drier equatorial regions of Mars. Around the beginning of the 20^th century some astronomers were still promoting the ideas of canals on Mars, but skepticism was widespread in the astronomical community, most believing that the apparent lines seen only poorly through most telescopes were optical illusions, and noting that Mars, though possibly containing some water, was too cold and dry to have actual surface water. But the idea of Martians excited the popular imagination, and science fiction books describing living creatures on Mars were popular into the 1960’s. It wasn’t until 1965 that the Mariner 4 spacecraft took detailed pictures of the Martian surface and showed definitively that there were no canals and no suitability for advanced life on the planet. Nevertheless, the search for some kind of life on Mars, either current or in the past, continues and inspires fascination for many people. Some people have even said they would want to travel to Mars, even if they knew they would die there. Personally, I think they are nuts, but I can understand their fascination.

Favorable appearance of Mars. Mars, of course, is the next planet out from the Earth, and it travels more slowly around the sun. When the Earth has circled the sun in a year, Mars has traveled approximately to the other side of the sun, but when the Earth circles the sun again, it catches up to Mars, so the Earth gets close to Mars about every two years (more like to every 26 months). They are closest together when the sun, the Earth and Mars are all in a straight line. This is called an opposition because at that time the sun and Mars are on completely opposite sides of the Earth, 180 degrees apart. At the time of an opposition Mars rises as the sun sets, and Mars sets as the sun rises, so Mars is visible all night long, and being close to Earth, it is the best time to look at it with a telescope. But because the orbits of Mars and Earth are elliptical rather than perfect circles, the two planets are closer together at some oppositions than at others. At the closest oppositions – called a favorable opposition — Mars is only about 35 million miles away, whereas at the least favorable oppositions it gets no closer than about 62 million miles. The favorable oppositions occur every 15 or 17 years. In between, the oppositions become less favorable, then gradually more favorable until a really good one occurs again.

Finally, personal. With this background I can now tell you my personal story. My interest in astronomy started in elementary school and grew stronger in high school. In 1956, when I was starting 10^th grade, a very favorable opposition of Mars got a lot of attention in the popular press as well as the astronomical literature. I had only a very cheap, wobbly telescope of less than 2 inches diameter, but I got my first good look at Mars with a 200-power eyepiece. I thought I saw a white polar cap and some kind of dark marking, but I couldn’t be sure. It was enough to make me determined to save up money to be able to buy a big telescope so I could see Mars at its next opposition in 1958. Indeed, two years later I had an 8-inch diameter Newtonian reflecting telescope on a very solid mount. It was about the same size as my skinny adolescent body! At that time drawings made by visual observers with very large telescopes could show more detail on planets than the best photography. And there were no spacecraft yet! My scope was small compared to professionals, but it was very big for me. And I put it to use making drawings of Mars. The first attachment (1) is a pencil drawing I made on a now-yellowed 3×5 card. The dark triangle shaped marking to the left is known as Syrtis Major, one of the major, more permanent dark markings on Mars.

I missed the next two favorable oppositions of Mars because I got distracted by graduate school, marriage, career development and raising a family. But by the time of the third favorable opposition it was late in my career and the children were almost grown, so I had time to think once again about Mars. It was 2003, and Mars was going to be closer than it had been in 60,000 years! It was time to get the largest telescope I have ever owned – the 11-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain scope that is still the largest scope at Lookout Observatory. I had hoped to get a great view of Mars and, since I had gotten into doing some astrophotography, I hoped to get a decent photograph of markings on Mars. But as luck would have it, shortly before my big telescope arrived, I managed to slip and fall down our basement stairs, breaking my left leg. Being on crutches, I was unable to even set up the telescope in our back yard, let alone haul it up to Lookout for a really good view. So once again, I had to wait for two more years for a less favorable, but still reasonably good, opposition. So in 2005 I was finally able to obtain my first photograph of Mars, which is attached below (2). It also shows Syrtis Major, but now the large triangular shape is rotated to the right side of Mars. This was exciting for me, but since I was new to planetary photography, the image didn’t show much more detail than my drawing 47 years earlier.

One of my goals these last 15 years has been to get a better photograph of Mars before I died. The next very favorable opposition occurred in 2018, when Mars was almost as close as in 2003. My advancing age made it likely that it would be the last best chance to see Mars in my lifetime. But as luck would have it, it was not to be. A combination of family commitments (trip to Canada, visits with children), too much smoke in the skies at Lookout due to increasingly large wildfires, and planet-wide dust storms on Mars prevented me from getting any opportunity for good photos of Mars. But finally in 2020 I got my chance to check off an item from my bucket list! At opposition this year (which occurred this month) Mars was only about 9% smaller than it was in 2018, and there were no obscuring dust storms to blot out the dark markings. So the next 3 images (3,4,5) were all taken by me this month, some with the 11-inch scope and some with an 8-inch scope. They all show various faces of Mars with the white South Polar Cap at the top (it is traditional to show south up). If you have questions about these images, please feel free to ask me.

But no, that last very detailed image (6) was not taken by me! It is by Damian Peach, one of the world’s best amateur planetary photographers. And it shows just how much further I, as a beginner in this, still have to go. But I wanted you to see how far Earth-based pictures of Mars have come in my lifetime. If this too-long story seems rather odd to you, remember we are all suffering from too much pandemic and political stress, and we all need to find our happy places to survive. Currently, Mars is my happy place!

May you find your happy place and keep looking up,

Carter, (sometime) Resident Astronomer,

Lookout Observatory