Mars Close Approach - 2005 & Dust Storm

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Mars - 10/30/2005 07:30 UTC -- A little over 4 hours after Mars was at it's closest it will be to Earth for the next dozen years [approx. 0.46 AU (69 million km], I was able to grab some images. It hasn't been optimal for star/planet watching, but we got some clear, if hazy and windy, skies on the special night. Luckily, Mars was showing us the face where a dust storm has been brewing for a while. Click on the big image for an annotated version that points out the storm.

Both images are composites of images taken through red (23A) and blue (80A) filters using the R(G)B technique. The second image was sampled at 2x.

Taken with a Philips Vesta Pro 690K webcam. The telescope used was a Meade LX-90 (8" SCT, f/10). Pictures were captured and stacked using K3CCDTools and Registax 3. Further processing done with Paint Shop Pro 8.1