[meteorite-list] Mars Odyssey PAULI Impressions / Humor Alert

From: bernd.pauli_at_paulinet.de <bernd.pauli_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:16:34 2004
Message-ID: <DIIE.0000004800000DD3_at_paulinet.de>

Spent the afternoon getting ready for a night of skygazing and,
especially, of Mars observing:

Prelude:

Reading S&T issues June, July, August. Getting familiar with what
I would be seeing on Mars (Mars maps in June issue). Computing
the Martian Central Meridian for 22:00 / 23:00 / 24:00 U.T.

Pondering over whether I should take my Martian meteorites out to
the scope and show them their home planet. Give up that splendid
idea because the garden has been watered yet.

Action (but no satisfaction): :-(

Set up my telescope in our driveway, need a compass because Polaris
isn't out yet. Spirit level to get the tripod horizontal - lots of beer coasters.

Polaris is out but the scope points elsewhere - same procedure
as usual. Let's start adjusting the scope once again. I love it.

It's slowly getting dark and the stars our out ... plus dozens of streetlights
up and down the street ... plus cars with their headlights full beam to find
out what that guy's doin' there "in the middle of the night".

One look at the Alkor-Mizar system, at Albireo and M13, another look
into those streetlights and the night vision is gone, gone, gone ...

My wife proposes carrying the 40-kg scope into the backyard. Is she
crazy? OK, I pack up and carry everything behind the house ... and
my slipped disk and my sciatic nerve are jubilating.

Suddenly the lights go out in the living room. What an understanding
wife. She knows that any stray light spoils my night vision. Ah, she
really cares.

.. does she? The front door is closed, the back door is closed. Ah, I see
Mrs Pauli went off to bed. Something's dawning on me: "This is not my
day / night today / tonight !

Knock .... knock-knock ... knock-knock-knock-knock.

OK. Time to set up the telescope a third time. But where's the pole star?
Ah, I see behind my neighbor's tree, let's carry the scope a few inches
further west. Yes, there we are but no pole star ... branches, branches,
branches (no members of the Branch family though :-)

Some more inches, ... clang! ... what's that. My wife's enormous terra
cotta flowerpots. Let's move one of them - ouch my spinal cord !

Let's just find the approximate direction to the celestial pole. That will
be good enough for Mars. Too lazy to use the level once again. A short
hop to M13, then to M27 (Dumbbell Nebula). But where's Mars? ... Oh.
I can detect it low in the east behind another neighbor's trees.

Time to give up? Capitulation? It will take at least one more hour
before Mr Martial Mars climbs high enough above those trees and
that neighbor's house.

OK. I'll vent and tell my buddies (ladies included) on the List. Maybe
this helps and then, ... I'll be back at the scope and see if I can see:

a) Rifts in the South Polar Cap
b) Mare Acidalium should be on the CEM (32=B0 for 22h UT).
c) Directly below Mare Acidalium there will be Chryse
d) Right below Chryse, there is the ascending chain of the
     following Martian features from right to left in my C-8:
Mare Sirenum (at far right - close to the limb) - Solis Lacus -
Aurorae Sinus - Margaritifer Sinus - Sinus Meridiani - Sinus
Sabaeus
e) Argyre between Aurorae Sinus and the Martian South Pole

.. well, I think I'll be glad if I can recognize something white (pole cap),
some orange patches and a few dark-olive green "islands".

Well, what if not ??? :-(

Then there are Ron's beautiful online links and my four little Martians:

Zagami - NWA 1068 - DaG 476 - NWA 998

They will comfort me before I doze off ............... ;-)

Bernd
Received on Fri 15 Aug 2003 06:19:29 PM PDT