Mars

[Bondred]

I believe Mars is coming into opposition and the best time to view will be in March.

Just looking up tonight, is Mars looking a little bit too yellow/white tonight?

[Freddie]

Looks red/orange to me !!

[Bondred]

Maybe I'm looking at the wrong object

[Bizibilder]

At the moment (21.30 ish) Mars is in the East-South-East direction at about 25° above the horizon, if that helps. It is definately quite Red.

[Trickystar1]

Mars is looking good tonight, newbies don't get confused with Venus and Jupiter, lol. Mars is south east 30 degs from horizon.

[JamesF]

And it looks very red to me, even with the naked eye.

James

[Bondred]

My eyes must be playing up, I'm looking at it with the naked eye and it's not looking very red to me, it is the only planet visible to me at the moment, Jupiter is too far gone and Saturn hasn't risen yet.

[WillsF]

Just been a newbie looking at Mars myself with a new eye piece set (the revelation set).

It is the only planet available to me at the moment, and even then the light pollution here and my lack of experience made it a less than perfect experience.

I think, James, if I can align a pregnant wife to be willing to sleep in the cold on your sofa bed and a clear night we may pay you a visit! Hell in a fast car and her having an early night I might make it down and back again without her knowing.

[brianmc]

My best views of Mars so far just now. I actually found I could see most using my moon filter.

[Craig20264]

Did look very bright and not very red/orange to me half hour ago through the stock 10mm EP. I have seen it looking redder than tonight

[MjrTom]

Light pollution has little effect on planetary viewing.

It's more down to the steadiness and transparency of the atmosphere which dictates how much detail you can see.

Mars was looking great this evening at 200x magnification before rain stopped play.

Not only was the ice cap visible but also subtle detail seen as dark areas on the disc.

I find a Baader Neodymium filter really helps to boost the contrast and tease out the detail.

[faulksy]

was looking at it tonight could see the ice caps but no detail seemed very bright almost like you need a filter. then it started to snow

[Matthew]

Mars looked superb tonight,ice cap and dark areas clearly visable.I find a 9mm baader ortho and a baader uv/ir cut filter a good combination.

[R1gel]

Looks red to me through the bins and naked eye.

[WillsF]

Sounds to me like it might be worth while another attempt tonight with a moon filter and more patience.

[mcsheffield]

Mars look great last night, was so mesmerised I watched for over an hour, but do now know that I defiantly need to buy a filter to tease out more detail.

[Zachariah]

Well I tried Mars last night and it was a big disappointment, just an orange blob. Too close to rooftops and lowdown praps.

[Scott]

i think i had the same problem as you zachariah, jupiter was brilliant though. first time i've used a scope and i only had the basic eps that came with the scope so things can only get better

[Catweazel]

I couldn't get a great view of Mars last night myself, but it was definately red/orange, and red to the naked eye. I got some of my best views so far of Jupiter though

[Damo636]

I had great views of Mars last night, the best this year in fact. At around 11.30 i was able to push the mag to 300x and at times seen lots of detail. The ice caps were clearly visable. It should be even better in a few weeks time when it reaches opposition.

[John]

Mars looked superb tonight,ice cap and dark areas clearly visable.I find a 9mm baader ortho and a baader uv/ir cut filter a good combination.

That was pretty much the view I was getting with my ED120mm refractor. No filter but contrast and detail holding up well at 225x

I find quality eyepieces with minimal light scatter (like your Baader GO) and a fully cooled scope are essential to getting the best views of Mars, and the other planets, for that matter.

[Kevdan]

I was very dissapointed with Mars, It was just an orange blob very small with 150x mag using a 5mm celestron x-cell lx and a LP filter this was about 11pm so should have been high enough in the sky and was just a bigger blob with a 2x barlow making 300x. Didnt even bother getting webcam out to take pics.

Kev.

[Jamezer]

Hi im new to this but im sure i saw mars in the south, quite high up, very bright, no colour. At about 11.45pm. Observed for about 30mins.

[Matthew]

I agree John,my dob was cooling for 4 hours with the fan on before i even started observing mars.The BGO's are superb for planetry viewing ( ive found them to be better than my hyperion's),and with a good quality filter their something else.I am keen to try the neodynium ( baader ) filter to see how it compares to the uv/ir cut.

[Zachariah]

Perhaps it was the skies in the West Midlands to blame, but Mars when I tried in my skymax 127 was rubbish. Maybe I should try a filter.