Mars: Saturday 14th Jan. TSA102 + 3.7mm Ethos

[TakMan]

Had a great observing session with my mate on Friday/Saturday (13-14th Jan), finished off with a half hour study of Mars.

Cold, clear and pretty stable conditions apart from the cold and the moon quite close by...

Took advantage of not having my new imaging camera yet for the back of the FSQ, so decided to put the TSA on the EM400 instead.... makes drawing at high mags far easier than using the manual EZTouch mount and you get GoTo too !

Tried both my Takahashi LE eyepieces (2.8mm, 3.6mm, 5mm and 7.5mm) first, but settled upon the 3.7mm Ethos - despite not needing the 'extra drawing time' that the 110 degree field offers when used on an undriven mount.

The view was just as sharp and bright as the Tak Erfles (despite all that extra glass in the ultra wide Televue) and the field of view gives an added context and allows the drawing to 'breath'... The Taks are also 'warmer'. I might now need to get that 4.7mm to complement it

Made a few preliminary annotated sketches with the intention that I'd then re-do in Photoshop (trying to remain faithful to what I actually observed ) - quite like the finished result.

Clear skies,

Damian

[beamish]

These are magnificent !

I really love the way you haven't edited out the gentle flaring that one sees in the EP ( or the screen for that matter) colour is just SPOT ON !!

[dweller25]

Very nice scope and rendition too.

[DarkerSky]

That is awesome. You've picked up some gorgeous subtle detail. I love the scaling you've used to give a really good impression of its size in the eyepiece. Top work

[AlexxxAA]

Awesome! Really great job. I love the detail you have. Congrats on a great refractor