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Sketched October 16, 2003 from my front driveway in San Rafael, CA at 12:00 a.m. pacific DST (daylight savings time) or 07:00 UT October 17. Seeing very good, transparency LM 5.0. Our friends Stuart and Susan Chalmers were visiting from Scotland and all of us sketched on this night

Date: 10/16/03 Lat 37N, Long 122W, elev. 200 feet Sketch Time (UT): 7:00, (local time): 12:00 a.m. midnight DST
Central Meridian: 339° Filters: none
Instrument: 7.1-inch (180mm) f/9 Astro-Physics Starfire Apo refractor. Distance from earth 0.53 AU, 79 million km, 49 million miles
Magnification: (16mm) 300x  Zeiss Abbe Ortho combined with a 2.4x AP Barcon Barlow Transp. 4/6, Seeing 5/10, Antoniadi (I-V):  II
Apparent Size: 17.5" Magnitude: -1.6

Details about Mars: Diameter 17.5 arc seconds (Jupiter is about 30 -50 arc seconds in diameter depending on its distance from earth). Central Meridian 339 - the imaginary line passing through the planetary poles of rotation and bisecting the planetary disk, and is used to determine the longitude during an observing session. Mars' phase is now 92%.

Syrtis Major is rotating off the limb. Sinus Meridiani and Mare Serpentis are to the right of Syrtis Major. Hellas is near the south polar cap. two subtle lighter areas near the terminator are Agyrre I and Pyrrhae Regio. Mare Serpentis snakes around Hellas. Mare Erythraeum is near the terminator.

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