Mars - 26 January 2008

[asteria]

Hi there - I managed to get out for my first night for a while yesterday. I warmed up (or is that cooled down) with the ST120, spotting a few Messier objects. The main catch was M35 (and neighbouring NGC2158) in Gemini. The LP was pretty bad which made catching the fainter objects pretty difficult.

I then got the Mak Cass out with a view to observing Mars, which was riding very high in the south. Once the cool down had happened I was able to get some very good views. However, the seeing seemed pretty poor, even after the scope had chilled. Although dew and high humidity had affected the ST120, the Mak with its dewshield stayed dry so I was able to observe pretty well unbroken for about two hours.

Filters again improved things, especially orange. However I found that I was able to make out a range of surface details and some very subtle markings with an unfiltered eyepiece (TMB Planetary 9mm) at 200x.

All in all a good session and a relief to see some clear sky, more or less, at last.

Ed