Title: Demonstrating the Elliptical Orbit of Mars using Naked Eye Data Author: Kevin Krisciunas
Over the course of eleven months we determined the position of Mars on 45 occasions using a handheld cross staff and two to five bright reference stars of known right ascension and declination on each occasion. On average the observed positions are within 12 arc minutes of the true positions. Given that we took data prior to the start of retrograde motion and well past the end of retrograde motion, we can easily derive the date of opposition to the Sun. We were able to derive the date of perihelion, the orbital eccentricity, and the semi-major axis size of Mars' orbit. We obtain a value of the eccentricity of 0.086 +/- 0.010, which is to be compared to the modern value of 0.0934. Values as low as 0.053 or as high as 0.123 can be rejected at a high confidence level. A simple dataset can be obtained with cardboard and a ruler that demonstrates the elliptical shape of Mars' orbit.
Movie capture of mars though a C11 in a good seeing night. At the end you can see what can be done stacking hundreds of frames on each colour channel to obtain a colour image.
Time lapse looped animation of the planet Mars Captured with a 100mm refractor and Vesta pro webcam + Baader contrast filter + IR-cut filter + 2x Barlow lens.
The martian polar cap can just be discerned on the upper left hand side of the disk.
Time lapse looped animation of the planet Mars taken at ~01:40 UT 5th March, 2012. (Images taken about 30 seconds apart). The seeing was excellent at times and some images were very clear, showing polar and planetary features. The images are digitally zoomed and unprocessed and show some glare and pixilation.
Captured with a 100mm refractor and Vesta pro webcam + Baader contrast filter + IR-cut filter + 2x Barlow lens.
Ed ~ i managed to get some images of mars after a good observing session last night, unfortunately the images were at the end when high clouds started roll in. Visually, features such as the polar caps were easily visible using a 8mm planetary eyepiece and 2x Barlow on a 100mm refractor.