Even poor Mars viewing can be exciting!

[old_eyes]

So last night (15th) there was an unusual confluence of me being at home and the sky being pretty clear. Bright moon so a chance to look at the planets.

The exciting thing was that for the first time with my 150mm Celestron S-C and an 8mm eyepiece I saw structures on Mars!

No this may not be very exciting for all you experienced observers, but pretty damned impressive as far as I was concerned. Previously it has always been a small orange disk no matter what I did.

The atmosphere was rather wobbly but there were definite grey features overlaid on an orange background that were stable and consistent in shape and location when they appeared.

With the eye of faith I might have been able to see one of the polar caps, but I think that was more wish fulfilment than actual observation.

If we get a clear night over the weekend, I will try the bigger light grasp of my Dob.

Fun!!

old_eyes

[andrew63]

Glad to here you saw a bit more of Mars - I think you will be able to see the polar caps also with the 150mm with good steady seeing - hopefully over the Easter weekend.

andrew

[Dreadz]

Had exactly the same experience myself last night with my 10" dob. Was amazed to see the detail that had up til now completely eluded me. Wanted to stay out to wait for saturn but other duties called and having to get up early for work this morning meant saturn will have to wait. Jupiter gave me plenty of detail again though which is always nice

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[old_eyes]

Had exactly the same experience myself last night with my 10" dob. Was amazed to see the detail that had up til now completely eluded me. Wanted to stay out to wait for saturn but other duties called and having to get up early for work this morning meant saturn will have to wait. Jupiter gave me plenty of detail again though which is always nice

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I also have a 250mm Dob. How much could you see?

[Dreadz]

It was still fairly low in the sky but could see clearly the darker areas and am sure I could make out the polar caps in the moments of clear seeing and am sure it would have been incredible if someone could have switched off that giant spotlight in the sky!

Not sure whether it's my proximity to the coast but there always seems to be a tremendous amount of atmospheric turbulence (or something else!?) thats determined to interfere with my viewing but nonetheless Mars certainly was more than just a red spot for me last night

Good luck with the dob on saturday, hope its clear for you.

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[old_eyes]

@Dreadz - good luck to you too. Just had a squint outside and pretty solid cloud, but forecast better for tomorrow