Mars

[Matthew]

I havnt long sold my Skymax 127,i used a 9mm plossl/filter to view the planets and the views were good.What filters have you got zachariah?

[rory]

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.

well its in the south about 30 degrees or so above the horizon. quite unmistakable .naked eye view looks like a large orange star.

i cant go above x83 with my current e/p's, but it looked sharp at that mag,albeit without details.

[Thirdway]

Last night Mars was just too bright. I let the Dob cool for an hour. By this time Saturn was crystal clear at Max mag with the Hyperion zoom at 8mm. Mars was an intense orange/ red disc, well focused with zero scatter and I couldn't pick out any real detail. A few night ago Mars was low on the horizon, it was more diffuse, but using the supplied SW 10mm EP I could make out the polar region. It was blurry and it seemed as if the magnification was higher ( does the atmosphere act like a lens at low altitude ? ).

Got my Dob collimated to perfection now, perfect star test. I could watch the scope getting better as it cooled further.

And I'm in love with Saturn.

[Kevdan]

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.

Possibly, so much light pollution from Birmingham to the east of me and an annoying neighbour at the south of me last night kindly leaving a bedroom and bathrrom light on for over 3 hours.

I may try again later if possible but cant see me getting that much detail as it is so small.(another reason for the 250p ds upgrade me thinks)

Kev.

[dcwales2012]

As a newbie, Mars was clearly visable with naked eye from the SE in Wales, tints of red, yellow and white.

Tried looking through bino's 9x50, couldn't see any difference.

[JamesF]

Mars does seem astonishingly bright at the moment. A moon filter might well help reduce the overall brightness and show more detail. I was imaging with the webcam last night and had to back off both the gain and brightness to settings far lower than I would use for Jupiter. Obviously Mars is far closer to both us and the sun than Jupiter so far more light reaches it and reaches us from it per unit area of the planet, but it's also way smaller. The first time I saw it in a telescope (as opposed to binoculars) I was quite surprised how intense it appeared.

If you don't see Mars as red, it might be worth starting at Orion and comparing Rigel (bottom right) with Betelgeuse (top left). Rigel is (for me) clearly bright blue-white and Betelgeuse very red-orange by comparison. If I then look across to Mars it appears to me to be at least as red as Betelgeuse, if not more so.

James

[Zachariah]

Well lp or not I have tried my skymax127 and 150 fob and the results are the same= a small blob orange to red. No detail. I think its because its still too low down when I try to observe. Ep? Well i have a celestron x cel lx 12 mm and a standard 10mm. Filters to try, moon snd just some old Tal ones.. Any advise would be welcome.

[Liofa]

I am also not having much luck viewing Mars at the moment, although it is to the North over the city during my evening viewing time. It's very bright and hard to pick out much detail. Saturn on the other hand is stunning at the moment.