dweller25

Yes rice will work plus once dry give it a good uv soak from the sun to prevent mould growing.

Brilliant 👍

Can you take a couple of photos and post them here ?

Great report Gerry, I can only imagine what the views are like through your Dob - do you use the 120mm as a finder ? 😂

I was just going to say the same thing 🤪

Great sketch Mike, I was out at the same time but did not catch the same detail - time to get the Binoviewers out I think.......

Thanks Gerry

Nice image, what time was it taken please ?

Mars was surprisingly putting on a great show at 10pm - much better detail than Jupiter showed when due south earlier in the evening and at a similar altitude. I used a good old KK 12.5mm Ortho for this drawing giving x153 in my setup. The polar ice cap was bright. I’m not the greatest artist but it represents what I saw. More to come hopefully as Mars moves to closest approach in October....

Very nice Mike - very steady seeing last night 👍

Hi @StarGazingSiouxsie I had the same problem - resolved with a 50% transmission Neutral Density filter to bring the brightness down that was washing away detail. It will not effect the tone of Mars at all 👍 https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/language/en/info/p319_TS-Optics-1-25--Grey-Filter-ND-03---50--Transmission---Neutral-Density.html

Wrapping it in a couple of layers of Reflectix will definitely help.....

The seeing quality of the UK skies varies a lot - so I use a zoom to match the seeing conditions. The Baader 8-24 zoom used in your Mak will give magnifications from x63 which is great for Luna to x188 which is about ideal for a 5” obstructed scope on the planets. It’s not cheap at £185 but four BST’s would cost a little more. The zoom is even better value if you can find a used one.....

Yup 😁

I’ve got wind 😂

Gort, Broadhurst Barada Nickto 😁👍

That’s great 👍

Good observations Gary and as you say it will get better as it approaches opposition and climbs higher. Keep at it as some sides of Mars are much better than others 👍

Yes, I will be bringing magnification down on Mars next time to either x181 or x217 which is more realistic, x274 gave nice image scale but the lower magnifications show more contrast and a much more pleasing image 👍

Great sketch 👍

Great sketches Mike 👍

Great observation and drawing 👍

The C6 is 3.8kgs

Hi Mike, it was all a bit rushed but I wanted to get my first view this season of Mars, I will use binoviewers at x217 next time and wait until the scope is cooled. Still it was a way better view than Jupiter 🙂

Totally unplanned observation and rushed due to ever increasing cloud cover, so no scope cool down time, image was still reasonably good but i ran out of time before the views became pin sharp. In the perfectly clear East sky !!! a brilliant Venus and the Moon were shining bright.