Tell Me My New EP Is Fine?

[Craig20264]

Have been out this evening trying out my new 6mm WO SPL. Overall i'm pleased but seem to be suffering from a shimmering on the planets, especially Mars at the moment.

Would I be right in thinking the seeing is not quite good enough for 200x mag, Views through the standard SW 10mm which gives me 120x mag are fine, or could this be an issue with the EP itself?

[LukeSkywatcher]

Your EP is fine. Its the "seeing" that is not quite right. Mars is notoriously difficult to observe..........even now when closest to Earth. You are just overdoing it on the magnification for the given seeing conditions.

[Karen]

The seeing up here was awful tonight. Not very clear, like looking through a fog.

[Brumtaffy]

Have a look at Highest useful magnification

According to that source, you are within the range of useful magnification for a 200mm scope, so I guess it is the seeing. In addition Mars is low right now, have a go at 3am

[John]

It's the seeing conditions as has been said. Poor seeing can humble very high quality optics !. It's also one reason for having more than one high power eyepiece and / or a quality barlow lens - you can then step up or down a bit to find what the seeing will allow.

A quality zoom eyepiece like the Nagler 6mm-3mm is especially adept for this in faster scopes

[Capricorn]

If you have a peek at Metcheck and select the Jetstream you will see that this is flowing right down the UK and over in effect all of it.

I suspect that this turbulant stream is the cause of a lot.

The weather here rarely mentions it, whereas the US weather tends to display it. It was a post on CN that said check the Jetstream as that affects the seeing conditions.

[RikM]

I don't often use more than 170x in my 10". Very occasionally the seeing will be good enough for 240x.