Mars

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

13.9" is a bit disappointing. I think it was around 25' in 2005, although I was scopeless at the time. Seeing plays an even bigger factor with Mars. I've seen a reasonable amount of detail in my 6" but had to spend a long time at the eyepiece.

Mars always requires a lot of time at the eyepiece. One reason is the glare resulting from the high surface brightness. Having said that, all planetary observations benefit from that, as you tease more detail out from brief moments of good seeing.

[Telrad]

I'm looking forward to viewing Mars, just hope the skies clear enough over the next week. I'm prepared to spend a lot of time at the EP, after all it's what I bought a scope for.. I'm going to fit a planetary filter to combat brightness..

[Moonshane]

if you have a moon filter or neodymium filter this will also help cut down glare. I am not a fan of the cheaper coloured filters but some like them.

Mars is special.

[Rob]

Can't wait for Mars next year. Polar cap will be no problem.. I've managed the caps and some serious planet detail in my 8" newt. Collimation, collimation, collimation.. oh and cooling!!

[Thelonious]

March 5th is the closest Mars gets to Earth I believe.

[russ]

I'm looking forward to viewing Mars, just hope the skies clear enough over the next week. I'm prepared to spend a lot of time at the EP, after all it's what I bought a scope for.. I'm going to fit a planetary filter to combat brightness..

Don't get too excited for now. Mars is 4.1" at the moment, that makes it smaller than Uranus in the scope. And to compound the problem it will only be 7deg above the horizon when the Sun rises. A real tough challenge to say the least.

Mars will start getting interesting around November time. Apparent size upto 7" (still tiny) but a much higher 47deg above the horizon. That will allow much higher powers to be used. And you will be wanting to pile on some seriously high power. As Mars improved during 2009 i was using 400x-500x and even then the disk size was still tiny.

[Rob]

True Russ.. but we must grab what we can..

[russ]

True Russ.. but we must grab what we can..

Always worth a try.

[vegaandarctures]

I've never observed mars before

[F15Rules]

Last opposition I got some nice detail with a 5" refractor..one of the best features about Mars I think, is the colours..really distinct ochre/orange/brown/greenish and of course the whitish ice caps..definitely reminds me of Earth more than any other planet in the Solar System.

I agree with Michael, Mars repays time spent at the eyepiece...if you watch it for half an hour, with a driven mount so you can really concentrate on the image centred in your FOV, you start to really see more and more. Also your dark adaptation will be at its' best after an hour outside.

Isabelle, enjoy Mars next time around:)..

Shane, that F11 Newt should be amazing on planets!

Dave

[Moonshane]

cheers Dave it totally is. It's a scope I'll never part with I think.

I have had views of Saturn and Jupiter like never before.

That said, when the seeing is superb (rare of course) my 12" (now sold) delivered even more incredible views with the additional brightness of the planet (once your eyes adjust to the brightness of course). prolonged observing (like when observing the moon) reduces the impact of the brightness (I observe unfiltered generally speaking) and the detail starts to flow through in the moments of good seeing with more aperture.

I find the image is more constantly stable with the 6" but when the detail 'pops' in the 12" it was fab.

Not seen Mars with this scope yet but have high hopes for this one and maybe my 0.984 strehl 16" f4 with a 7" off axis aperture mask giving me unobstructed APO performance of a 7" f9. will be interesting to compare the views of that and the 6" on Mars and of course Jupiter/Uranus/Neptune (maybe pick up moons with 16" aperture?) later in the summer.

fear not, I'll be doing a report