Saturday night under the Martian Light

Saturday's initial sketch of MarsSaturday Evening:Last Saturday evening I was all set up in the observatory to take some photos of Mars.The Nikon D50 camera was ready, the x3 Barlow was in place, the Tal clock drive was ticking away, the skies were crystal clear.Also my quarry had not long risen over the edge of the easterly wall of my observatory....I good nights viewing was ahead..... PERFECT.....!!!Perfect that was until I actually tried to image this little red beauty........!!It quickly became apparent that my planetary photo imaging left a lot to be desired.....I wasn't having much luck capturing my images.....then it struck me....!!!Why am I trying to capture mediocre Mars photos on such a beautiful night.These nights of steady seeing are so few from here in Pembrokeshire that it felt right to put the digital imaging equipment away and employ the old fashioned analogue photon detectors, namely my eyes.Out came the pencils.... one black.... one red...and a piece of paper ...After a few minutes of observing, Mars revealed its Snowy North Polar Cap.Next came some darker detail near the polar cap...and a little later a strip of darker detail was seen to the South.Mars is like one of those magic ...