Getting poor views of mars :(

[chrisjose1913]

Hello, i have a bresser skylux EL (refractor). It has a, focal length of 900 and a aperture of 70 mm. I have tried viewing mars but with issues. I can't make anything out, just a small red dot. I can't even see the polar caps i am using huygens eyepieces. any suggestions ? 

[oldpink]

mars is never easy and you will need some decent magnification to get anything more than a small red ball with a 70mm
are you using a Barlow it may help

[chrisjose1913]

No i am not using a barlow, i am still yet to buy one i will be getting one very soon tho.thanks for the reply.

[oldpink]

with my 200 and a 10mm eyepiece mars is small and hard to see any detail without the Barlow
and you need really good conditions to see mars well< I'm in out of the rain waiting on the promised clear skies to go out and do some Mars imaging

[jonathan]

Could well be due to poor seeing conditions, high winds may be bringing thin cloud across that you can't see.  Also, a typical 70mm refractor is probably not going to show much detail visually anyway, don't forget that Mars isn't a large planet like Jupiter or Saturn.  I was just about able to make out some surface detail a couple of years ago using my 8SE, a much larger scope.  I'll be trying my 150P reflector with a 5mm eyepiece on Mars tomorrow night all being well.

[knobby]

If it makes you feel better I can only see an orangy blob with my C8 and 25mm ep... Any more than the 25 and it turns to jelly :-)

[chrisjose1913]

Thanks for the replies, i will stick with larger planets for now

[HumptyMoo]

I was solely out tonight for Mars as it is the clearest it's been here for months. I spent about an hour observing at various magnifications but I was getting some serious atmospheric wobble, maybe heat from the house's under the scopes path. I probably had about a minute of viewing where I could make out a slightly red disc with a couple of slightly darker patches.

To be fair it was the best I have ever seen it as usually all I get in haze is flare, this time it actually was clearly a round disc with differences in surface hue. I am guessing that I will need quite a few more sessions to see some of the details others are lucky enough to have observed. Hang in there!

[ronin]

To see Mars any more then a small red disk will need 200x and preferably 250x, a 70mm will simply not produce that in realistic terms. I have a litte 70mm and know it's limitations. Mars is a small red dot/disk.

Also unless it is not something like 4:00-4:30 in the mornig Mars is generally a bit low., certainly too low for good viewing at any sensible time of the evening.

Finally Mars usually causes more cries of anguish then anything else. It may "close" to us but Mars at it's closest to Earth is still smaller then Jupiter at it's furthest from Earth. Size is angular.

You may get more from the scope with better eyepieces but that means more cost and buying things.

A plossl will I think do no use, the good ones do not go to 5mm or 6mm, the ones that do are likely not worth buying. Do not consider the classic 4mm plossl - been there, done that, utter and complete waste of money. :eek:

That leaves ones like BST's and Celestrons at £49 and £64 respectively.

Any clubs that around you to get to, should be able to peer through some kind hearted souls scope and some clubs have hire scopes.

[John]

I'm observing Mars with a 120mm ED refractor this evening. At 257x I can see the N polar cap and 3 distinct darker areas, 1 in the N hemisphere and 2 in the S. It's taken a while for the image of Mars to settle down but the seeing conditions are quite good here now although the 94% phase Moon is throwing a fair amount of light into the part of the sky where Mars is, which will impact the contrast shown on the planet I reckon.

Observing detail on Mars is challenging though.

[chrisjose1913]

Thanks for the posts, i since turned to Jupiter and got great views. I was able to see the moons and the red band around her  

[Steve Ward]

The jetstream is back over us tonight which is adding to the difficulties ... 

Looks like a better bet on Tuesday night though ... 

[AndyWB]

I'm observing Mars with a 120mm ED refractor this evening. At 257x I can see the N polar cap and 3 distinct darker areas, 1 in the N hemisphere and 2 in the S. It's taken a while for the image of Mars to settle down but the seeing conditions are quite good here now although the 94% phase Moon is throwing a fair amount of light into the part of the sky where Mars is, which will impact the contrast shown on the planet I reckon.

Observing detail on Mars is challenging though.

I was just out with my 130mm reflector; at x216 I could see the North polar cap (dinky!), and the same darker areas as John - or at least, there were 2 in the south, 1 in the north. The ones in the south almost formed a band across the disc of the planet.

At x130 I could still see dark and light patches on the surface, but no polar cap.

But I suspect that this would be pushing it for a 70mm.

[Hartmann]

I was observing Mars yesterday  with my 127  Mak with 150x  using  a 10 mm eyepiece  and   i saw  the ice cap and some surface features like Sirtys major and  the south  with  some separate  dark  areas, but it´s a small object and  it need a lot of time to see surface  features and details in such small disc.

Perhaps with a new 8-9 eyepiece i could  get more detail,  but  worse seeing and focusing issues.

[knobby]

Thanks for the replies, i will stick with larger planets for now

I wouldn't give up totally... Wait for a good night, no twinkly stars and set yourself up with a comfy seated viewing position and then just stare... And keep staring... You'll probably get a few fleeting moments of good seeing where you will notice some detail.

[Dreamweaver]

The best I have ever seen of Mars was this evening between 11pm and midnight. The moon was below the roof tops as seen from SE London. Mars, looking directly south, was high enough to observe from my front door.  Using  2.5mm Nagler type 6,  I was able to push the magnification to 200X in the 80mm Apo (focal length of 500mm).  I could just make out the ice cap (a tiny small white dot in the 1 0'clock position) and  a band of mottling in the lower region that somehow looked like Mars was doing a smiley!  The seeing was not too brilliant at first but in the 50 seconds or so that it took to traverse from right to left in my field of view I was blessed with between four or five crystal clear sharp images when it came into focus. Otherwise it was rapidly going in and out of focus all the time. I compared the view in my 90mm Mak  but could not get anywhere near good enough focus at 178X magnification which is approaching the limit for the 90mm Mak I think. The subtleties of surface detail further revealed themselves through the apo after about twenty minutes. The view seemed to settled down to something quite spectacular, although small, it was definitely a wow experience for me. Fantastic.  

[Jim Steele]

Mars is a tough target, saw it through a 8inch SCT the seeing wasn't great since it was rather low in the sky just appeared as a pea sized red blob. First view of Mars so was chuffed :-)

[Moonshane]

I think at 150x or more you will get decent levels of detail but it takes patience and time at the eyepiece. sometimes you need to stare at the planet for a good half hour or so before detail 'emerges'. you need good seeing too. as an example of the sort of thing you may see, I have copied a sketch below. the detail has been blown up in this view and took a long time in quite poor seeing. the smaller dot is the approximate size of the planet in the eyepiece.

good luck!

[chiltonstar]

Certainly with my ED80 last night at x150 I was getting reasonable views, with quite a bit of detail. I even managed to push the mag to x200, which was still pretty sharp, so your 70mm should give you some detail I think.

Chris

[michaeldurban]

I have a 10" flex and at 12.5mm (+_ 100x) I see mars as a red dot with orange

waves, I can make out the darker features as sketched above..

At first I thought they were floaties,...but persistence convinced me otherwise.

I agree...good seeing conditions are paramount for mars to be captured in

a visually appeasing way..

[LukeSkywatcher]

Ive looked at Mars a few times with different scopes and ive only ever seen more than an orange circle,once. I cant remember which scope i was using. It could have been the Heritage 130P. I saw a polar cap and a dark area on the surface that looked like India. Other then this observation.................Mars is the most frustrating planet to see.

[cutepetgroomer]

well ON the night of the lunar eclipse , I was able to see mars through a telescope at the local community college (I'm in the united states) without a telescope that night, mars looked a very bright red star , however the ice caps were the only thing I was able to make out but even so, it was pretty cool to see mars with that. We had clear skies, along with cold weather and wind so I know the wind didn't really help but I believe the aperture of the telescope on mars was 80 mm , and it had a filter on it to help see mars better as well.