Mars Sketches from Myrtle Beach July/August 2003

Our recent vacation to Myrtle Beach provided an opportunity to try the TV101/Gibraltar and the new Televue 3-6 zoom eyepiece during the current Mars apparition.  The TV 3-6 zoom proved to be an extremely useful eyepiece for this setup.  The 6mm (90x) provided an adequate field of view to find and center Mars, while the 3mm provided 180x for comfortable observing of the red planet.  The click stops were very easy to use and were most useful in finding the power that was most effective given the atmospheric stability.

The image of 8-1 features the most prominent geographic feature visible to the amateur; Syrtis Major. 

The 07-27 image features the south polar cap at the bottom of the globe and dark features Mare Erythraeum and Sinus Meridiani.