Mars isn't worth the effort...

[Owmuchonomy]

Well, that did the trick. I told my wife and 2 daughters that based on my recent efforts Mars isn't worth the effort. Anyway, I have a new EP so I set up the 9.25 to try it out. Out trots my eldest in bobble hat. Can you see anything Dad? I didn't reply, because I was speechless. In all my years I've never seen Mars at more than 140x and that was like jelly. Now I'm looking at it at 300x. Ice cap, huge Hellas (learnt this from the chap who frequently posts his drawings), Sytris and other features I have to learn. My daughter assumed this was normal Martian behaviour of course.

Then my eye started to ache so I put in a 25% ND filter. Wow, even more contrast and colour. We spent ages watching it and the N Yorks sky behaved impeccably.

Take a picture Dad. So I grabbed my DSLR and tried an EP shot for posterity.

So we were very happy spurred on by those in SGL who convinced me you can get good seeing in the UK. I was so engrossed I forgot to try pushing it harder with my FTRs.

Meanwhile my daughter has nicked my iPad and is using 'Jupiter Moons'. Dad, what is a red spot? So, slew around and there it was staring hard back at us.

All in all a very satisfactory session.

[todd8137]

I had not bad views last night ,sounds like you all had a great night

Pat

[ronin]

That is the problem with Mars - once or twice 300x will be possible and you will see something good. Just that once happens so very rarely.

[Paul73]

New Kit!! I knew that would be the answer! (New toy for just such use is currently en route from FLO .

New toys living up to expectations (hope). And, you got the kids interested. Truly a good evening.

Thanks for sharing.

Paul

[Owmuchonomy]

New Kit!! I knew that would be the answer! (New toy for just such use is currently en route from FLO .

New toys living up to expectations (hope). And, you got the kids interested. Truly a good evening.

Thanks for sharing.

Paul

Baader Hyperion 8mm with 14 and 28mm FTRs. Very nice kit for me.

[Paul73]

Baader Hyperion 8mm with 14 and 28mm FTRs. Very nice kit for me.

Indeed. Very nice. I've gone for the Vixen SLV 6mm.

Hoping that it lives up to expectations...

Paul

[John]

Sounds like a great family astro night Chris 

That is the problem with Mars - once or twice 300x will be possible and you will see something good. Just that once happens so very rarely.

Oh, I don't know, I've found 300x or more working well on Mars for the past few nights I've observed it. 

[jetstream]

Sounds like a great family astro night Chris 

Oh, I don't know, I've found 300x or more working well on Mars for the past few nights I've observed it. 

Same here now that the sky has settled out for bit,sometimes even a little more than 300x with the zoom.If this is an exception I'm loving every minute of it!

[AlexB67]

Sounds like a great family astro night Chris 

Oh, I don't know, I've found 300x or more working well on Mars for the past few nights I've observed it. 

More than I expected this is the magnification I ended up with on several nights recently, though last night was a bit of a struggle, but I've actually ended up using the 300x enough on mars that I am slowly convincing myself a dedicated 4mm may actually be worth a buy at some stage, perhaps I get to buy one of those SLVs or an old Radian at some point for the job, would be nice for the moon also    

With Mars not as nice for me last night I ended up looking at a bit of Saturn too,  but since it was one of the first nights in a while with the moon not yet up. I gazed at m3 for a lot of the night.  I couldn't stop looking at it, it is such a great Glob and the sky up that near zenith provided some good seeing. I was so enthralled by it, looked good through the whole range of 115x - 240x each mag offering something.  I never moved on apart from M51 was looking not bad either.  Averted vision revealed a bit more than just the often two smaller smudges I just see at home.

It was nice to get a bit of deep sky in the bag again after what seems quite a while  I  feel a little bit of dark sky trip coming on tonight if the weather holds as the moon will be up that little bit later now.

[jackruff]

That is the problem with Mars - once or twice 300x will be possible and you will see something good. Just that once happens so very rarely.

On a memorable night years ago I was able to use my Intes 150mm Mak/Cass to observe Mars at over 700X. Never since.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[cotterless45]

This was at the last opposition, when even low magnification gave wonderful views,

Nick.

[WaveSoarer]

I find that 300x gives very decent views of Mars through my SW 200p. I do use the stock 10mm EP and a 3x Barlow though and I'm starting to wonder if it's worth inversting in a higher power EP than the 5mm I currently have. I'm not sure that a 3mm EP wouldn't stretch things a bit too far for the optics and a 4mm ouldn't give much of an advantage over the 5mm anyway. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? I had the best views of Mars I've been lucky enough to experience on the night of the 19th. It was surprisingly steady and lots of features could be seen with a little time and patience. The polar cap was a sharp white dot and you could just make out a dark band where the ice had melted back slightly, though this was quite fleeting. When I was viewing Syrtis Major was close to the edge of the disc but still clearly differentiated on both sides and the clouds over Hellas Basin were gleaming away very brightly. I'm really pleased that I've managed to get some decent views of Mars this opposition as these opportunities don't come around all that often. Sadly Jupiter will be too low in the sky for me this year - unless I pluck up the courage and take my scope out of the vilage.