Saturn great, Mars not so great.

[brianmc]

Just had that heart skipping a beat moment where I looked through the eyepiece and saw Saturn for the first time, an amazing sight.

I was a bit underwhelmed by Mars though, maybe I'm still a bit bleary eyed this morning but it almost seemed too bright to pick any features out. Is it better next year?

[Episkey]

It will be at opposition in early March next year, from what I've read here, it can be a bit underwhelming for a lot of people.

[brianmc]

I wonder if there is filter that would work well with Mars, perhaps reduce the glare.

Saturn is still good to observe even now at nearly 730, are those two moons of Saturn either side of it?

[DOBBY]

Hi Brian... before 7am you should see 5 moons in an 8inch...mars can be a bit underwhelming, but as Joey says... best to wait till March

[ronin]

You seem to need luck when looking at Mars.

To see any detail you need high magnifications, good conditions and a scope capable of the magnification. Ignore the "maximum" stated on the boxes. You want a decent magnified image. Many say 250x-350x

As to filters I recall reading that an IR filter can help.

Mars is small and at a fair distance, so will always be small. Have a look up the angular size of Mars, Saturn and Jupiter.

One other thing to remember is that not only are you looking through our atmosphere but you are also looking through that of Mars as well. Mars atmosphere may be thin but there are dust storms on Mars and anything like this will mean loss of detail.

[NGC404]

When Mars gets closer next year, I would deffo get a #56 green filter

Helps make the polar ice caps jump out at you

[bish]

Saturn great, mars not so great generally seems to be the case.

[John]

Mars is much more a test of the conditions, the scope and the observer than Saturn is. It gets better as we get closer to it's opposition in early March 2012 but it's never an easy target. I find that ensuring the scope is fully cooled and in really good collimation helps.

[faulksy]

was good a few years ago could see the polar regions quite easy

[todd8137]

mars is rubbish at the min wait till feb march next year mars is a bit of a let down at the min

[John]

was good a few years ago could see the polar regions quite easy

During some of the oppositions in the past the apparent diameter of the planet was a lot larger than it's going to be this time around. I can recall picking up nice detail with my 60mm refractor at 100x back in the early 1980's.

[brianmc]

I've just ordered the #56 green filter, it says it can be good with Jupiter too.

[LukeSkywatcher]

Saturn is always a WOW moment. Even better when its rings are open wide®. Mars really is tricky and underwhelming for most observers. Mars has yet to impress me.

[Sam]

Saturn is always a real jewel in the sky and Mars being much smaller is often a bit underwhelming but on the odd chances that you can make out the polar ice caps it's certainly something special.

[JAllen]

I haven't seen Saturn yet this season, I'm looking forward to rings opening up more and hopefully seeing the Cassini Division.

I was observing Mars a few weeks ago and found it very hard going. I thought I could see a polar ice cap, though it might have just been bluer because of atmospheric refraction. After looking at it for a long time I could even imagine a small darker patch near to the pole. I then took a picture using my webcam and it seems that I did indeed see both of these features. The details on Mars seem to have a really low contrast, especially compared to Jupiter.

[Pete Presland]

i find all the planets look better through a webcam,you get a much larger image scale

[Mr Spock]

At the moment Mars is only about 9" diameter and is very low. This is a difficult target for even large scopes. The best you will get is 13.9" on March 5th - still very small.

Contrast that to Jupiter - high up and 48" diameter.