Night Time Obs, Feint Fuzzy... Options

[djellison]

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit/pa...E1P2741L1M1.JPG

Odd patch of fuzz in there - any ideas?

694 p2741.05 10 0 0 10 2 22 pancam_nighttime_opacity_L1R1


Doug

[Bill Harris]

Thanks for the star IDs, blue_scape.

--Bill

[AndyG]

Thanks for the star IDs, blue_scape.

--Bill

Yes, thanks very much! Three things spring to my mind:

1) The Martian south pole is not our south pole - I have to say that it's distinctly odd to see, hammered home, Doradus and the net of Reticulum rotating at a different angle compared to our view from Earth.

2) The Pancam isn't bad as a wide-angle telescope. Beta Dorado is a Cepheid variable with a magnitude range of 3.46-4.08, Theta Dor is mag 4.8, and Epsilon Dor 5.1 - heading for the limit of naked-eye visibility. Yet there's stars shown in the pancam image that are as dim as magnitude 7.5/7.7 (well beyond naked-eye visibility) before a cut-off at around mag 7.9/8.0. This is on a par with a poor pair of binoculars (...or a good pair used under streetlights!)

3) SAO 249066 (R Dorado) is a variable star which reaches a listed mag 4.8 at maximum brightness - yet here it's clearly shown brighter than Beta Dorado and Alpha Reticuli (3.35). Is that because the pancam chip is more sensitive to IR/red light than "normal" visible light, and R Dorado is a strong IR/red source?

Andy G

[David]

1) The Martian south pole is not our south pole - I have to say that it's distinctly odd to see, hammered home, Doradus and the net of Reticulum rotating at a different angle compared to our view from Earth.

Someday I'd like to find a list of the celestial coördinates that the N and S poles of each of the planets (and the Sun) are directed towards.