Lakes yesterday, opposition today

A lake on Mars. That's cool.
Although, it is 1.5km under ice at the Southern Pole, and to be liquid at -68c it must be full of salts.

So another tantalising hint that life could be on Mars. All that salt is bad for cells, but I'm holding hope that life has found a way. Perhaps if the salt levels raised slowly enough to give Martian deep-lake-life enough time to adapt?

And today, the 27th, is opposition for Mars.

Hopefully the cloud cover parts enough tonight for a quick look from the front steps.

Saturn!

Oh, and Saturn was at opposition on June 28th. Which I missed, due to reasons. However, it doesn't move fast, so I'll have a chance to check it out over the next few nights. It's cold though, so I'll be moving fast!

Mars attacks!

Well, it looks like it is.

Last night the transparency was great ( a rare sight this time of year) and Mars was amazingly bright in the Eastern sky as I took Kn to Martial arts. By eye, it seemed just as bright as Venus - but very, very orange.

So just before bed, about Midnight, I quickly dragged Dobby on to the front step for a quick look.

It was windy, and biting cold (even through the big coat and scarf), and as it turned out the seeing was a bit poor. I lined up with the 25mm ep (Mars looking great on a sparse star field) and jumped straight to my 6mm ep but the shimmer was too strong, with Mars quite large and bright, I don't think I've ever seen it so close. Moving to the 13mm ep reduced the shimmer, but detail still eludes me. I might be able to convince myself I saw a white tinge at the top of the disc, where I would expect to see the polar ice, but everything was smeared by the seeing (and probably the dust storm as well).

No photos, as it was too cold.

Dare I hope for more clear nights as opposition approaches?