From: Milton Aupperle <milton@outcastsoft.com>

Date: November 27, 2007 9:41:53 AM MST

To: Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com

Subject: Re: [Astro_IIDC] Re: Mars Fri Nov 23

Hi Duane;

On 27-Nov-07, at 12:25 AM, Duane wrote:

Hi Milton,

Thanks, that means a lot coming from you. It looks like you had a much better October 

than I did. Everything I took then came out like mush. Your Hellas basin came out pretty 

good too. Is it just me or does it seem much brighter/lighter than it has before?

I'm not sure if it is or isn't brighter and I don't have any images of Hellas from 2005.  Also the direction it faces relative to the sun and the viewer makes a big difference too, especially on the limb. If you take a look at my 2005 Mars images (shot with a MAK 127 mm scope under exceptionally stable skies):

http://www.outcastsoft.com/AstroImages/Mars_2005_10_23_MJA.jpg

or

http://www.outcastsoft.com/AstroImages/Mars_2005_Rotating.mov

You can see that as the dust cloud rotates from limb to more central, it reflects less light and brightness drops off. But it could be brighter too as that big dust storm months ago may have added or removed dust to it.

TTYL..

Milton J. Aupperle