John

Nice clear night again tonight.

Mars is looking great even 300x with my 100mm Takahashi refractor. Just for kicks I got it up to 900x using a 2.25x barlow and the main dark areas and tiny pole cap could still be discerned. Rather sharper and more contrast at 300x though !

The pale band that I think is the Eridania plain is showing between the dark Mare Cimmerium and the south polar area. Over the past couple of hours the pale notch adjacent to the Hisperia region has rotated towards the central meridian.

The seeing here tonight is better than it was on the 6th when I last observed Mars. Very nice

I'm a visual observer like Geoff. I do often see a satellite whizz across the field of view through a scope but they don't bother me at all.

I can see that imagers would not be so relaxed about them though.

The APM 107mm referred to by @Coco is one with the LZOS (Russia) triplet objective lens in it. These are quite different level of quality from some of the other APM branded refractors.

LZOS objectives are world class - right up there with Takahashi and Astro Physics. And so they should be for what they cost.

I have an APM branded scope with a LZOS 130mm F/9.2 triplet objective and it is probably the finest instrument that I've ever observed with.

10 minutes ago, Spacecake2 said:

I can help you if you know your telescope diameter in inch or millimetres. 😀

 

The Skywatcher 150p has a primary mirror 150mm in diameter.

With that scope I think I would be using the 10mm eyepiece with the 2x barlow to get 150x magnification. Allow the scope to cool down to outside temperature, focus carefully and give your eye time to adjust to the brightness of Mars and you will start to see darker markings and maybe the tiny south polar cap. South is at the top with the newtonian scope view.

I don't image so I can't help you there.

To see the Veil Nebula you really need to use an eyepiece that gives a true field of view of around 1.3 to 1.5 degrees as a mimimum. That is just about wide enough to view most of one of the brighter sections of the nebula, ie: the east or west segment.

With a C5 SCT that means using 32mm plossl with a 52 degree apparent field of view which gives you a 1.33 true field. Unless you move to using 2 inch eyepieces. A 24mm 68 degree apparent field eyepiece shows a similar true field to the aforementioned 32mm plossl.

A good UHC or O-III filter will also be pretty much essential to see anything of this target with a 5 inch scope.

22 minutes ago, Stu said:

Interesting John, and just shows how conditions vary by location. My conditions definitely dropped off after a couple of hours, but even at 2.30am when I packed up I wasn’t getting the ‘running stream’ effect. The limb remained quite well defined, but the contrast and detail was not there at the higher powers, needing me to back off a bit. Still good at x150 to x200 though, handy to be using the zoom.

I'm not surprised though Stu. I've known significant variations in seeing and / or transparency between my garden and my society observing site which is only 5 miles away.

Quite often I've found my garden better when I get home from a society session though it's sometimes the other way around. 

Very local factors can make quite a difference as well as more distant ones.

5 minutes ago, scarp15 said:

Just interested if you use a filter John (or other readers)? Since formally owning a Televue Bandmate planetary filter used for Jupiter years ago, I do not have any planetary filters, perhaps an applicable filter may draw out subtle features? Experiencing good seeing, contrast between 'dark fingers' such as Mare Cimmerium and Syrtis Minor among other areas was strongly defined and brief periods of ochre shading were distinguishable, good to learn if a filter could necessarily enhance and draw more surface detailing.

No, I don't use a filter.

Interesting comments on the seeing conditions for observing Mars last night.

I found the contrast of features quite strong for the first hour of observing and then things gradually went downhill from there until Mars was showing that "viewing through a running stream" look

Checking out some close double stars proved that the seeing had taken a plunge so I packed the scopes away.

It was good to see Mars at it's closest this opposition but I'm hoping for better seeing for a longer period in sessions to come when Mars will still be a pretty decent angular diameter.

I still intend to try and catch Phobos and / or Diemos with my 12 inch dob when they are furthest from Mars. They do move around the planet quite quickly though so I need to be on my toes to catch them at max elongation from their host planet.

2 minutes ago, Pixies said:

Fixed it. Hardly worth it, though!

Actually quite useful.

What many will see when they initially view Mars I reckon. But observe for longer and more detail will gradually be teased out

5 minutes ago, Louis D said:

I can cross import FLO's Starguiders, especially if I buy them 7 at a time, far cheaper than buying them new here from any US retailer.

Which in itself is interesting because the first time I heard of this eyepiece was when the Astro Tech Paradigm range were reviewed 11 years ago on CN by Tom Trusock:

https://www.cloudynights.com/articles/cat/cn-reports/eyepiece-reports/first-look-astro-tech-paradigm-eyepieces-r1845

At that time, $80 apiece.

Interesting comparing these prices:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/bst-starguider-eyepieces/bst-starguider-60-12mm-ed-eyepiece.html

and

https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/language/en/info/p4931_TS-Optics-1-25--ED-Okular-12mm---60--ebenes-Bildfeld---hoher-Kontrast.html

Exactly the same or subtle differences ?

£47 vs £85

The seeing here went downhill after midnight and clouds have put the finishing touch on the session for me.

Hope others still have it good though

18 minutes ago, Adam J said:

Better definition to the rings on one side than the other would indicate spherical aberation (under / over correction). But the test is very sesitive so you will almost always see some SA.

If the test is done under excellent seeing conditions, at appropriate magnifications that might be the case. Do you really want to star the OP worrying about SA just now though, given the circumstances described in this thread ?

Still nice and clear here - very nice martian details showing. Even my Mrs came out see them !

I've had both the Tak 100 and the LZOS 130 out tonight. Just the latter now. Also had some decent views of Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune.

Nice night so far despite some suspicious looking lumps of cloud here and there.

I agree with Geoff - the diffraction rings are not always well defined by any means. Sometimes they are better defined on one side of focus and mushy on the other. Seeing conditions play quite a role in this and it's all to easy to think you have an optical issue when it's really the seeing playing around with you !

Presumably the airy disk of the star expanded either side of sharp focus ?

What star did you use ?

I'm not an imager but that is an astonishing image of a part of the sky that I love to observe so thanks so much for all the effort you have put into this and for sharing it here

Pretty clear here at the moment. Hope it lasts. I've had some quick views of Jupiter, Saturn and Mars in case it does not. The seeing seems pretty decent just now

The refractors are deployed !

Just in time for Mars closest approach !

What could possibly go wrong !

Tonight's the night - Mars at it's closest and at least some clear periods forecast

5.1 inch triplet frac is cooling down outside. 

Great sketch @jock1958 - just how it looks through my Tak FC100-DL as well !

22 hours ago, Steve Clay said:

I too considered this mount as it can have encoders. However, the reviews were a bit scathing saying it didn't even get close to it's quoted payload.

The SW AZ 5 is really good for the price. I have one 0n a 1.75 steel tripod. The 5kg payload is quoted with the bundled tripod. It's 9kg with a steel tripod. Buy the head and extension only and add your own tripod. It's a 3/8 photo thread so options are endless. It's worth waiting for at It's price.

Steve

I'm sure that the above is accurate but it is also worth remembering that the tube length is just as important as it's weight in determining what scope a particular mount can perform well with

Here is the Sky & Telescope Mars Profiler:

https://skyandtelescope.org/wp-content/plugins/observing-tools/mars_profiler/mars.html#

Got some clear sky forecast tonight to have a look at that 22.6 arc second disk

I agree - if they won't or can't replace it then get a full refund and they should cover the costs of returning the scope.