True color/contrast
(Sept. 5, 2003)

This animation shows actual images of the surface of Mars during the period from August 3, 2003 to September 5, 2003.

Animation: Images were sorted by the rotational position of Mars and grouped to give approximately equal spaced rotation intervals. The actual color of Mars is more dull brown (lower image).

Processing: The images are a brighter orange due to increasing the gamma correction and brightness to better bring out the details.

The images were kept at the same scale so the changes in apparent size is entirely due to the distance changing over the period.

Equipment: The pictures were taken from my home in Minnesota, in a 6" reflector telescope at 100 power and an Olympus 4000Z (4 megapixel) en:digital camera set at 3x zoom. (Total 300x)

The sequence of frames shows the rotational direction of Mars, but by date actually runs backwards since Mars' en:rotational period is 37 minutes slower than the earth. You can notice the en:angular diameter noticeably changes during the period, and the polar ice cap also changes sizes. Also notice the phase of Mars changes and there's a fair jump from a small phased image (Aug 3) and a nearly full large image (Sep 5).

All the en:albedo features visible have names. One feature looks sort of like an eyeball, being a round spot with oval darkness above around it. The feature is called Solis Lacus in en:Latin , meaning "Lake of the Sun".