A session on Mars …

[Moon-Monkey]

Beautiful nights observing both with the 8” Dob and the ST80 this evening 2.5hr session at about 4’celsius went from Jupiter and stunning views at 160x in my 2” with beautiful banding in reds detail of the temperate bands and equitorial zones as well as some detail on the polar caps then had a look through the ST80 at the double cluster below Cassiopeia with a stunning pinpoint cluster of stars at 12.5x pushing it up to around 50x on one of the r doubles resolving more and seeing deeper then went over to Mars which had risen over the roofs started at 160x which showed some detail but image size was still quite small so swapped over to 1.25” format and on the TMB 2’s so now image scale was better and started pushing the mag to see what the sky would hold ended up after a 9mm then a 6mm then a 5mm ending up with a 4mm was what the sky was holding this evening reaching 300x the detail was rich although the colouring wasn’t as stark as the other evening with pastel tones enveloping the poles then syrtis Major was a dark contrast of the albedo features which stiff out clearly and defined with and albedo crater like structure to the side which was Schroeter this was circular in shape and defined more in the limb side of this feature to the south (north to me in a Dob) was the larger dark feature of the Huygens area and due her still south the  lighter sandy feature of Hellas Planitia the contrast was defined yet subtle changes of colour between the se light and dark albedo features there was also some what looked like cloud to the north this is an assumption as due to the angular nature I don’t think I can actually see the polar cap so until confirmation this observation won’t be classed as made till confirmed by others imaging this evening (unless anyone here was observing this evening ??) I finished off with the ST80 on Orion (M42) as it’s the first time I’ve had a scope on it this year how beautiful to see this again the nebuloscity popped in my ST80 with a 25mm jap Meade giving 16x but then I ramped the power up slightly to 25 then 50 in the end I was observing the inner M42 and a star Cluster called trapezium inside M42 the higher magnification with the jap 6.7mm giving me 59x darkened the background substantially actually giving better contrasts of the edges and core of m42 structure and texture was present at this exit pupil and the little ST really pulled in some photons giving very pleasing if narrower field of the nebula once inside I concentrated on and could easily split trapezium into the 4 main components and with a few minutes in the target was also able to pull a 5th component out too I think however this may have been flare perhaps that 6.7 is sharp though lol so perhaps not who knows I will check the mags of the trapezium fainter members in the morning and so ends my evening session with two scopes of completly diffenrt ends of the spectrum a contrast in instruments that bizarrely complement each other beautifully 
Clear skies everyone

[Moon-Monkey]

Have been told by a trusted observer that what I was observing was the polar cloud trough 

[RobertI]

Very nice report! Objects at different ends of the spectrum there, sounds like it was a great night for planets. I can’t help going back to M42 each time I go out, there is so much to see at any magnification. 

[Stu]

 Very nice and interesting report @Moon-Monkey, thanks for taking the time to write it up.

As you say, two very different scopes but highly complementary so covering a range of different objects well. Sounds like the Mars views were excellent 👍 

[Moon-Monkey]

On 23/11/2022 at 23:45, RobertI said:

Very nice report! Objects at different ends of the spectrum there, sounds like it was a great night for planets. I can’t help going back to M42 each time I go out, there is so much to see at any magnification. 

Thanks buddy was a great night 

[Moon-Monkey]

19 hours ago, Stu said:

 Very nice and interesting report @Moon-Monkey, thanks for taking the time to write it up.

As you say, two very different scopes but highly complementary so covering a range of different objects well. Sounds like the Mars views were excellent 👍 

Oh the views were excellent indeed the best I’ve had on Mars period lol it Does mean however that now I’m searching for those truely amazing skies for that “better “ session 🙂🙂🙂

[wookie1965]

Great report really good read thanks for posting