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It seems that Heidi Hammel will be observing Uranus at Equinox after all, leaving the observation of Mars to others ("the BASS guys," who are pictured in the book and the webpage about the 2003 observation). She'll be using the Keck telescope, which appears in some of the 2003 images.

A number of other major telescopes on Earth and in orbit will be observing the event as well. The Spitzer Space Telescope is an infrared instrument in a solar orbit that trails the Earth. It was launched in the same week in 2003 that I joined Heidi and the BASS guys on Mauna Kea.

Here's her latest e-mail to me.

Hi Fred,

Yes, some corrections/additions to the blog:

Actually I am (almost) to Hawaii, but not to the IRTF.

I am in California, enroute to the Keck Observatory, where we *ARE* in fact observing the equinox of Uranus with Keck's fantastic adaptive optics imaging system.

We only have the first few hours of the night, since that's all the time that Uranus is up. After it sets, we turn the telescope over to others.

The BASS guys are covering Mars from the IRTF on their own.

We also have time on the Spitzer Space Telescope for Uranus equinox mid-infrared spectral observations - probably next week. Hubble cannot observe Uranus right now just due to the geometry, too close to the sun ("solar avoidance").

We also hope the Gemini Telescope will get some mid-infrared images this week or next.

Hope that is helpful.

Heidi

Fred Bortz -- Science and technology books for young readers (www.fredbortz.com) and Science book reviews (www.scienceshelf.com)