chiltonstar

Excellent! I've tried a few times w/out any success at all - annoying as I've spotted Deimos a couple of times visually. Chris

Good to see the 8" f8 in use Stu! There were some glorious views last night, weren't there? My 4" f13 was showing a lot of crisp detail at x200 and x240 as in your charts above. The white cloudy area over Chryse was still there I think? A curious passer by + dog even admired the view. Chris

Clear here later on - the Sinus Meridiani feature was nearly central, with Syrtis visible towards the limb (02.11.2020 - 23:30 UT). Interestingly, some sort of cloud perhaps over Aurorae Sinus which showed up well in an image (in Stu's post). I like the sketch! Chris

Nice post Stu. The write up on Heritage scopes always impresses me, and I've often pondered getting a small one for trips away (when we are next able to escape of course!). I had my 180 Mak out looking at Mars last night - poor seeing and dew settling everywhere except for the front corrector fortunately. I had a quick attempt at imaging it, although the seeing was too rubbish to get much detail; the image did confirm what I could see visually - a cloud effect around Chryse/Aurorae Sinus. There is a lighter area marked there on maps, so it could just be that although it looked quite striking. Chris

There seem to be different opinions as to whether Winjupos is worthwhile with Mars or not. Looking at a series of avis of Mars from 23rd October, I could see detectable movement from stacked images from avis as little as 120 secs apart, so I decided to venture into Winjupos. I'm not that good with software, so my first try took two hours and the Sky at Night tutorial. Taking 8 avis from the 23rd October using my 180 Mak, ADC, 1.4x barlow, ASI224 MC, 600 frames each from 5000 and processing each avi in Autostakkert and PS, I derotated the series, and included the non-derotated frame and the BAA Mars Mapper for comparison. Worthwhile, I think so. I have a 1 Tb hard drive full of avis to try on rainy evenings! Chris

I managed to spot Deimos last night with the 180 Mak at x270. No luck though with Phobos - too much glare from Mars although transparency and seeing were both excellent (until the temperature dropped a bit and it started to haze up). The view was only transient, but it was in the right place I think. Interesting though how easy the 3rd star of Pi Cep was at mag 12.2, well away from the glare of Mars or the Moon*. Shows how important it is to have a dark background to see something like Deimos though. Chris *This double (actually a triple) is featured in this month's AN - the main star and its mag 6.80 companion are a nice colour contrast. The two principal stars were well resolved despite being only 1.1 arcsec apart - a tribute to the seeing.

Plenty of detail visible last night around Chryse, even though the seeing was come & go after all the rain. 180 Mak, ADC, 1.4x barlow, 2000/10000 frames processed with Autostakkert and PS. I've shown the BAA mapper for the same time and date alongside (based on Damian's images I believe). Chris

For the price, it is excellent. I use it with a 180 Mak (which is eyepiece-tolerant because of long focal length) and it gives views nearly as sharp as prime orthos. Chris

A nice rendition of some of the subtle colour differences. Chris

I use a hood to help dark adaption, as I have a neighbour with gigawatt security lights that turn on whenever his alsatian yawns. Chris

An earlier post re Uranus moons. I've managed 3 moons on many occasions, and 4 a couple of times using a 180 Mak (I'm not far from Oxford Nikolay, but in a village location that is reasonably dark). Using a high magnification is necessary IMO. Chris

On mine, there is a tiny black button on the ring, 30mm to the left of the f22 position - push it in and the aperture ring will turn off the f22 position. Chris

Another brilliant sketch Mike! I was getting the scope out last night, but cloud appeared and Mars vanished. A quick look at the weather and radar app. showed the forecast had changed completely in an hour or so - British weather! Chris

I bought the ZWO one. It works well with some manual lenses I have, but I've not tried it yet on more modern lenses. It is stiff on some lenses, but not on others. It works well with a Nikon 50mm f2.8 manual lens I have, but also on a modern autofocus Tamron f2.8 90mm macro lens (the lens I wanted to use it on). The aperture stop works normally on both these lenses (you need to move it off the auto f22 position on the Tamron). It is a bit stiff on a 300mm f4 nikon lens I have, so I've not really tried it on this. Chris

I am using a Baader Classic Q barlow (First Light Optics). It is nominally 2.25x but you can unscrew the lens part and screw it into the nosepiece of your camera, giving about x1.5 or so (If you aren't using a 31.7mm nosepiece on the camera, I am not sure how you can attach the barlow). Chris

I would say it is nearly as sharp as you can get with the 180 Mak. I found I got a slight increase in sharpness by barlowing to about f24. Nice image though. Chris

I've got a 180 and both the 6mm and 10mm Baader ortho eyepieces. 6mm requires a very good night, observing from grass and a well-stabilised scope. I do use it for the Moon, doubles and Saturn which occasionally needs the higher mag. For Jupiter, as stated above, a 15mm EP is a better bet (I use a Vixen SLV) to retain the contrast. For Mars, 12 - 18mm is the best range I would say. Recently, I've been playing with a 7.2 to 21.5mm Hyperflex zoom which I have to say works very well with the 180 Mak for planetary viewing (not for wider field obviously). Chris

I used the B&Q material for putting behind radiators with my 180 Mak. As well as greatly reducing cooling effects, it has also virtually wiped out dewing on the front corrector surface. Chris

180 Mak - just 7" aperture. Chris

A couple here Dave (I've put the BAA map alongside for the same time, to id features. Chris

Good to see a 'frac image of Mars! Yes, the seeing wasn't wonderful was it. I found there were the odd second or two of half decent seeing, but then the swimming pool effect set in and the image wobbled around for ten minutes or so.

With my 127 Mak, a 6mm EP is indeed near to the limit, as MrFreeze says! Needed though for Saturn for example to really bring out the ring detail. You will only be able to use it when the seeing is excellent or better. I had an old Plossl 6mm but bought a (much better) 6mm Baader Ortho. Beware though, the eye relief is small and you will find yourself cleaning the outer surface of the lens to remove eyelash grease. Chris

Nice sketch - I wish I could draw! I was out at the same time and tried a little experiment. By eye, I could see pretty much what you've sketched, plus some detail in the northern (lighter) half of the disk, including Olympus Mons which was very obvious. I then put the camera in instead of my zoom eyepiece, and looked at the image on the laptop. This gave more detail, and being able to turn the gain up and down meant I had in effect a variable ND filter. Finally, I imaged it in the normal way with a couple of 90 sec captures - this showed even more detail including Sinus Gomer which I think I've only seen once visually (with an EP) when the seeing was really excellent. Chris

....but we won't see Mars as well as this again for a long time I think! Last night at 23:45 (22:45 UT). 2000/10000 frames with a 180 Mak, ADC and AS1224 colour camera, barlowed to ca. f24. The seeing was less than average, with frequent wobbles and shimmering. By eye, Olympus Mons was very clear, and it is visible in the image as well. I couldn't see Sinus Gomer at all visually, but it has shown up in the image after processing (Autostakkert, PS). The poorer seeing than a couple of nights before has brought up the dark artefact on the W side of Mars. I've pasted a Mars map from the BAA website for the same time next to the image. Chris

It was a lovely sight last night, wasn't - despite the dew! I seem to have cured it on the scope, but the finder still drips. Chris