Mars - 12th September 2020

[Stu]

I haven’t been out for a little while, and with early mornings for work I’ve struggled with getting up at silly o’clock to observe Mars at its highest.

Last night Clear Outside suggested the cloud would shift in the early hours, so I set the alarm for 3am and set the 8” f8 up on its EQ platform ready so it would be nice and cool!

Remarkably I did drag myself out of bed, and could see Mars shining away out of the bedroom window, so out I went. There was some cloud around, mainly fairly light, but plenty of clear patches.

Starting off with the Leica Zoom, with Neodymium filter fitted, this gave me x90 to x180. The highest of those powers gave me nice sharp views with the small polar cap visible and dark markings clearly seen. These became a little more distinct and detailed when the seeing stabilised every so often.

I also tried the Nag Zoom on 6 and 5mm settings is x267 to x320. No more detail visible but the additional image scale made it slightly easier to see despite the contrast going down. I found that the Neodymium filter did help slightly, reducing the visibility of diffraction spikes and enhancing contrast.

My only other target was the Moon. I don’t normally observe it at this phase and it felt quite unfamiliar which was strange. It was still relatively low, so was a little wobbly, but I particularly enjoyed looking at Schröter’s Valley looking quite different to my normal views just after it has become fully illuminated.

A worthwhile little session, if tiring the following morning! Will do it again soon I hope!

[John]

Nice report Stu

I've been observing Mars tonight with my ED120. I get it at around 11:00 pm before it goes behind a big tree and then from around 12:30 onwards when it comes out from behind said tree.

There some some good detail visible in the steadier moments. Nice to see the planet looking as large as this in the eyepiece !

The 8 inch F/8 must be a wonderful planetary scope

[JeremyS]

Nice job @Stu

Thought I hadn’t seen so much of you on here lately. The early AMs explain it. Hope you get some more sessions soon!

[Stu]

6 hours ago, John said:

The 8 inch F/8 must be a wonderful planetary scope

Yes, it’s very nice optically John. It’s biggest issue is that it is quite tall and spindly with a narrow base, so can be a little unstable (as was evidenced by my toppling accident a little while ago! The Az axis needs a little tweak to tighten it up a bit too; I added a lazy Susan bearing as it was quite sticky, and now it’s a little too free!

The EQ platform definitely helps by giving me tracking at high power so once centred it is quite relaxing to observe with, just needing the odd correction every now and then.

[RobertI]

Nice report Stu, well done for getting out at such an early hour. I find these late nights exhausting!

[Stu]

9 hours ago, RobertI said:

Nice report Stu, well done for getting out at such an early hour. I find these late nights exhausting!

Me too Robert! I was able to have a little lie in, but was still awake at 7! 🤪😴😴