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Mars Appreciation Society

Ags

By Ags
in The Astro Lounge

  

20 members have voted

  1. 1. Is Mars the most wonderful planet to look at through a telescope?

    • Yes
      5
    • No
      15

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Ags

Ags

Posted
Posted

During the last opposition of Mars, I was very surprised by how many people were negative about the poor planet. "Too small to look at. No detail to see. Etc." I found Mars jaw-dropping, with lots of tantalizing details and even a bit of atmospheric activity visible in my small scope. This is your chance to stand up and be counted for the little planet! Vote for the Red Planet :-)

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Lee M

Lee M

Posted
Posted

In my ripe old observing career of about 12 months Mars has never appeared as more than a shimmering orange blob. I sincerely hope to get some better views this year. I'd love to be wowed by it.

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Laurie61

Laurie61

Posted
Posted

It is more difficult to see but, possibly because of that, more rewarding when you get a good view. I think it also needs a reasonable size scope to do it justice ? 8" and up to get enough magnification. I tend to wait until its reached 10 arc sec before trying which, given how fast it moves, means a short window for observation. This is an afocal shot I did in Feb 2010.    

post-30467-0-46786500-1389304162_thumb.j

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Astrobits

Astrobits

Posted
Posted

The best that I have seen Mars was back in the 80's using a 6" Cooke refractor. A 7" refractor and a 12" Tinsley Cassegrain  on the same mount were not as good for the details. I used various coloured filters to highlight the clouds and surface features.

A very memorable view.

Nigel

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JB80

JB80

Posted
Posted

I can't say I have ever had a great viewing of Mars, it's a shame because I'd love to be able to say I have seen the detail like the ice caps or Mare.

Maybe this year will bring better seeing.

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Kedvenc

Kedvenc

Posted
Posted

When I had a 4inch scope I tried viewing mars and was disappointed (this was at opposition). Since then I've managed to improve my observing skills/methods and also upgraded my scope to an 8 inch (but still got the bog standard eye-pieces) and I've had some great view's (especially in 2012 at opposition). In my mind not too different from the image posted above (all be it a lot smaller in the scope), it just takes patience to catch those fleeting moments of still air.

I've since given my 4 inch to my father but will try again with that to see how it goes. I also want to try using filters to see if that can tease out any more details.

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stev74

stev74

Posted
Posted

I've got to say I do enjoy observing Mars although it is a tough nut to crack. Over the last two apparitions I can count on one hand when I've had views similar to the image above - but when you do get a night with really steady seeing close to opposition it can be a stunning planet to observe.

I also enjoy the looks on folks faces when I tell them I can see polar ice caps on another planet with my scope. I'm not sure how many actually believe it's possible and it always amazes me when I think about it. :)

I'm looking forward to this opposition even more this time round as I'll be having a go at imaging Mars with my DFK as well as observing this time.

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

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Naemeth

Naemeth

Posted
Posted

I missed the opposition last year, when I first observed Mars the best I could get was an orange disk. Do I enjoy observing Mars? Yes. Is it the most impressive planet to observe visually? No, to me that honour is tied between Jupiter and Saturn.

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Moonshane

Moonshane

Posted
Posted

During the last opposition of Mars, I was very surprised by how many people were negative about the poor planet. "Too small to look at. No detail to see. Etc." I found Mars jaw-dropping, with lots of tantalizing details and even a bit of atmospheric activity visible in my small scope. This is your chance to stand up and be counted for the little planet! Vote for the Red Planet :-)

I agree Ags, I managed excellent detail and even spotted clouds over Olympus Mons one time at 300x, confirmed by photos uploaded the following day to SGL. Go Mars! Having seen the image above I was certainly getting that level of detail and more visually on a regular basis with my 16" dob masked to 170mm f11, albeit smaller in the eyepiece of course!

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Naemeth

Naemeth

Posted
Posted

Last view of Mars was so-so for me also but this time I have a chance and scope to pick out the detail

An 18" scope should be able to pick out the details :D.

Last time I was using my Heritage (5.1"), so now that I have a 10" dob I should be able to tease out more detail too. By April time I may have a Skymax 180 - how to choose :rolleyes:?

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andyman

andyman

Posted
Posted

Got my first view of mars at opposition and the seeing must have been almost perfect didnt now this at the time very new to astronomy and all that.but what a view.seeing the subtle copper shading...but what did it for me was viewing the polar icecaps in such fine detail a wow momment.so it gets my vote

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John

John

Posted
Posted

I've seen some lovely details on Mars over the years. It may have got a bad rap because recent oppositions were not favourable and the planet has not achieved much in the way of apparent diameter but we are gradually moving out of that phase so there should be a gradual improvement over the coming years.

Back in the 1980's there was an opposition where the planet was large enough for me to make out the main features and sketch them with just a 60mm refractor at 100x !

I'm looking forward to viewing Mars this year with both my 6" F/12 refractor and my 12" F/5.3 dobsonian. It will be interesting to see which can present the best image of the red planet  :smiley:

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Naemeth

Naemeth

Posted
Posted

I've seen some lovely details on Mars over the years. It may have got a bad rap because recent oppositions were not favourable and the planet has not achieved much in the way of apparent diameter but we are gradually moving out of that phase so there should be a gradual improvement over the coming years.

Back in the 1980's there was an opposition where the planet was large enough for me to make out the main features and sketch them with just a 60mm refractor at 100x !

I'm looking forward to viewing Mars this year with both my 6" F/12 refractor and my 12" F/5.3 dobsonian. It will be interesting to see which can present the best image of the red planet  :smiley:

Mars will get up to 15 arc-minutes in size this year, 18 in 2016 and 24 in 2018. Looking forward to 2018 :D.

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/planetopp.html

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Naemeth

Naemeth

Posted
Posted

I observed and sketched it with a 60mm Tasco refractor in 1988 - it was just under 24 arc seconds (arc minutes would be enormous  :shocked: ).

I realized my mistake almost as soon as the edit button vanished :rolleyes:. 24 arcminutes would indeed be enormous, almost the size of the Moon :Envy:!

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