October 12th 2002

This image had been realized only a a test of the webcam, under very poor conditions : bad seeing, short focal lenght, and a lot of wind that was moving the instrument... Only 21 frames have been saved from the avi. It was only when I saw a drawing made by Mario Frassati, coordinator of the Mercury program of the of the Unione Astrofili Italiani, that I realized that the details contained in the image were real ! The comparison of Mario's drawing and my image processed under Iris reveal a very brigth area at the north-western corner, and two dark area. One in the northern hemisphere, bording the bright zone (Solitudo Horarum ?). The second in the southern hemisphere (Solitudo Martis). Mario's sketch shows more details however.

Click here to see Mario's full drawing, on the Japan ALPO web site. His other drawings can be accessed from this page or on the ALPO homepage.

September 25th 2003

Images realized after sunrise with the C14 of my astro club, in infrared and red + IRcut, in order to stabilize the atmosphere and to try to enhance some surface details. It seems that Solitudo Martis is visible at the south of the image (at the bottom here).

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