Mars attracts !

[cotterless45]

A wonderful night, looked quite dismal to kick off with, but cleared beautifully by midnight. The seeing was exceptional here , even low down.
I spent ages on Jupiter , watching the transit of the very clear pea like Ganymede and the very dark GRS. Just set your focus and relax, I used to fiddle about getting moons sharp, then the surface.
Bright Mars soon appeared, it's been pretty poor lately. As soon as it cleared the houses it showed a stable view with the ice cap and several bright albido areas. Better was to come at x120 and upwards. The long surface markings were fleeting, but lovely to observe , before Saturn rumbled around.

Before I set up the 150 frac, I noticed the collimation was out giving laser circles on rotating the focuser. Eventually by just tilting the end of the diagonal slightly up before securing and bingo , it's stayed true. Best not fiddle with things again , especially in twilight.
Looking forward to clear skies !
Nick.

[JemC]

Nice report Nick

glad you got some good views,

i have only managed some eyeball visual this week as i have been working nightshift

[Knighty2112]

Nice report Nick. Watched the transit too last night, even though seeing wasn't great here. I didn't try Mar's last night as it was too late to look at it when it came into view, plus it hadn't held up well to scrutiny on the last few nights when I'd viewed it. Hoping the weekend and next week might bring better views of it. Got the week off next week so can burn the midnight oil without having to worry about work the day after any late observing session.  

[Special K]

Very good capture of Martian details!  I wondered about the seeing as it looked like hazy clouds high up last night and this morning which can be a good indicator. I was tucked up all night getting over the night before!

[alan potts]

Another very nice report Nick, you are without doubt getting my weather and I yours. The last time I saw the GRS I thought it was redder than usual, are you finding this true this year or is it me?

I am now in my third week of gloom and whilst clear at the moment thunderheads are amassing and storm due a little later on. Still I am very pleased that a good few people in the Uk seem to be getting out with scopes.

Alan.

[laudropb]

Very nice report Nick. I had a similar session to you. I had left my frac up after a good days solar observing. Went out to catch Ganymedes transit. The seeing was good, but transparency not so good. Lots of thin whispy cloud passing through. Lined up Jupiter and it was a very strange colour, then I remembered I still had the solar continuum filter in the eye piece. Very nice views after removing the filter. Watched the entire transit. Also good views of the belts and some festoons. I went indoors intending to come back out when the skies were completely dark and have a go at the Leo galaxies. An hour later I managed to get the Leo triplet, just. Transparency was just not good enough. Noticed Mars just rising over my trees so gave it a go. I was gobsmacked how good the views were considering how low the planet was. In moments of good seeing many albedo features were showing. Finally Saturn appeared and once again the views were very good. Just goes to show that with decent seeing conditions, some fine mist/cloud perhaps enhances the views.

[cotterless45]

Yep, Mars has been a real struggle. First thing that I noticed at x50 was a nice clean disc with albido. Just so lovely to get these details,

Nick.

[Paul73]

Exceptional seeing!

Those nights don't come along that often. Glad that you could make the most of the steady seeing.

Mars was good but not exceptional here. My 10" Dob showed a big disc with good detail coming and going at 200x. No polar regions though.

Saturn was a corker.

Paul

 

[mapstar]

Just don't know how you do it Nick. Fantastic detail in Mars 

Hats off to you