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Mars & Observing the Red Planet


Qualia

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What Jeremy said that John said, "Now"!

I've just come in after having one of the best views yet this apparition, with Sinus Meridiani bang on the central meridian. Every time I stepped away from the eyepiece I just had to step back and take just one more look over and again. It was glorious through my 100mm F8 refractor with a 5mm Ultrascopic eyepiece  (160X), and 3.4mm HR eyepiece (235X). Don't wait while opposition or you'll miss the show!

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20 minutes ago, Stu said:

Ditto! 👍👍👍, but substitute Vixen FL102S 😁

Me too but with ED100, binoviewers and BCO 18mm eyepieces and 2.6x GPC giving about 220x.

Probably the best view I've had so far, even managed to identify individual features this time 

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Started observing the planet with my Skywatcher 400p just after 23:00 BST on the 20th,seeing was not great but the polar cap was prominant and between the boiling Sinus Sabaeus,Margaritifer and Aurora Sinus all snapped into view. Lower down Niliacus Lacus looked roughly triangular in shape. At this stage I was restricted to a 12.5 Orthoscopic giving a power of 144X.

By 1am BST high cloud and thick haze advanced across the sky with only Mars and Vega visible,but on this occasion this was a good thing as the image of Mars settled right down so I could use my 9mm Orthoscopic ramping the power up to 200X( I tried a 6.3mm Plossl giving 288X but that was a step too far).

In the 9mm the surface details stood out plainly as did the polar cap,there was no more boiling of the image and the disc only gently undulated and even finer details came and went tantalizingly every few seconds. The haze and cloud got thicker and the planet was slowly lost from view.

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8 minutes ago, Stu said:

Looking at the satellite, it seems to be clear over much of the country, with some high haze and everything is moving very slowly. Could be a cracking planetary night tonight!

Hope so as I’ve just finished my run of shifts. 

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1 hour ago, Stu said:

Looking at the satellite, it seems to be clear over much of the country, with some high haze and everything is moving very slowly. Could be a cracking planetary night tonight!

I'm under the one bit with cloud 😢.  And your post had me all excited too.

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2 hours ago, Stu said:

Looking at the satellite, it seems to be clear over much of the country, with some high haze and everything is moving very slowly. Could be a cracking planetary night tonight!

Saturn is :thumbright::thumbright::thumbright: here tonight for a change. Jupiter was so so. Seems to be either one or the other but rarely both being decent and yet they are not that far apart in the sky :icon_scratch:

Must be "saturny" seeing this evening !

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Just popped in for a cuppa. 
all planets are “giving” tonight. 
jupiter grs center moved off to left. Could see two dark patches on the top band. Saturn’s amazing, easy division in the rings and very nice stripes. Mars, best I’ve ever seen. Nice dark “continents”, ice.. everything. All this at only 152x. (Big enough to satisfy me)👍finished my run of shifts so I’m allowed to stay up late. 

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1 hour ago, John said:

Saturn is :thumbright::thumbright::thumbright: here tonight for a change. Jupiter was so so. Seems to be either one or the other but rarely both being decent and yet they are not that far apart in the sky :icon_scratch:

Must be "saturny" seeing this evening !

How strange, seemed to be the opposite for me John! 🤣 GRS looked pretty good until it got amongst the tree branches.

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1 hour ago, John said:

Saturn is :thumbright::thumbright::thumbright: here tonight for a change. Jupiter was so so. Seems to be either one or the other but rarely both being decent and yet they are not that far apart in the sky :icon_scratch:

Must be "saturny" seeing this evening !

Exactly my experience tonight, although I had some very nice glimpses of the GRS during  45 minutes or so.  Saturn though was better as it often is, taking 198X  to give a very pleasing image.  Now on Mars and already it is quite good but a little wobbly. A bit more altitude  I think. This is the third outing in 7 days for the f15 5".

Edited by Saganite
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I had a few decent moments with Jupiter. GRS was not difficult to see. Saturn gave me more though. Some really nice periods with even the crepe ring popping into view and that wonderful 3D look that Saturn has with the ring system curving behind the disk and the planets shadow falling onto it.

Previous nights had been the other way around or both mediocre.

Mars is looking good already. Will look even better a bit later.

 

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20 minutes ago, John said:

I had a few decent moments with Jupiter. GRS was not difficult to see. Saturn gave me more though. Some really nice periods with even the crepe ring popping into view and that wonderful 3D look that Saturn has with the ring system curving behind the disk and the planets shadow falling onto it.

Previous nights had been the other way around or both mediocre.

Mars is looking good already. Will look even better a bit later.

 

Yep, Mars looking good in the 8” tonight, much more detail than in the 4” last night but quite wobbly still. It settles every now and then and is wonderful. As you say, hopefully it will steady more once it is higher. Going to bed now then will get up about 2.30 hopefully!

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2 hours ago, John said:

Saturn is :thumbright::thumbright::thumbright: here tonight for a change. Jupiter was so so. Seems to be either one or the other but rarely both being decent and yet they are not that far apart in the sky :icon_scratch:

Must be "saturny" seeing this evening !

I’ve worked out why I was seeing things the opposite way around to you John! Jupiter was over the gap between houses and Saturn was still over the house, so the seeing was poorer for it. Mystery solved!

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Hi I have had two good nights Viewing Saturn  and Jupiter and lastly Mars .

Jupiter and Saturn have been really great but tonight Mars was good for a while but then not so good .

I did see some detail but then it was gone.

All  in all it was a good night.

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Some lovely views here too, I would have to say my best ever views of Mars. I may post elsewhere on this, but I feel like I’m seeing proper details for the first time, rather than ‘some dark markings’.
 

Really good!

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Been capturing some data tonight on mars and I a hopeful of decent results but the seeing went mushy about an hour ago and I came in fora brew and had another look a few mins ago and decided it was time to pack away.

 

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I'm getting itchy for another shot at Mars, but it's looking like Thursday will be the earliest we get clear skies here. I've a new EP arriving soon, hopefully it will get here in time - a Vixen LVW 8mm .

I've also got a phone holder ordered at last. I thought I'd have a go at imaging Mars too.

Edited by Pixies
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