Mars

[cosmic dave]

I had a quick look at Mars last night I had a look at about midnight the planet is by far the brightest thing in that part of the sky and is still getting brighter. It seems well placed this time and if planets are your thing its well worth a look. Next clear night I am going to spend more time observing it with my new colour filters and try and get the polar region.

[Towa]

The North polar region is very easy to spot at the momemt.

This morning, I took my recently restored Dixons 3 inch f/16

department store refractor out and sketched Mars.

Checking my drawing against Sky & Telescope Mars Profiler,

I managed to see the North polar cap, Mare Acidalium ( which was

quite dark) Mare Erythraeum, Mare Sirenum and the Chryse region.

Noticed a small bright white spot on the limb, which might have been Amazonis?,

but more likely some limb brightening.

Not bad for a scope made back in 1966. Total respect to those Japanese lens makers.

[russ]

Had a look at Mars this morning. The disk is growing nicely in size now and the detail is easy to spot at 200x. The polar caps stand out nicely and the dark features pop into view with longer spells at the eyepiece. A red (W25) filter really helps bring out those dark regions.

Well worth observing Mars in the morning rather than evening at the moment. It's perfectly placed at 5-6am.

Russ

[Doc]

Still not seen it this year. It will be my first look through the 16" dob so looking forward to it. I wonder how much detail I'll see.

[DarkerSky]

The view should blow you away Mick, esp if you have a selection of colour filters - red and yellow in particular. Will never forget the 1st time I saw Mars through the Leicester Uni 16" Schmidt Cassegrain. I was too stunned for words,...and that was with a set of poor eyepieces. My 16" dob is being delivered tomorrow or Tues - Mars is top of my observing list

[albedo0.39]

I've had several looks at Mars in the 16" dob in relatively clear skies and... ...Well... I'll let you discover for yourself (I'd be interested to hear your First Light report on Mars)

Steve

[yeti monster]

Mmmmm! Mars. I haven't had a good look at Mars in years. Weather here is very cloudy, but, should I get opportunity, I'll borrow the bins from the CCR and take a peek.

Home in 2 weeks, can't wait to drag the scope out again, I'm really missing it. And Jupiter is still very high here, wish I could bring the scope with me.........

[HW Brucey]

I think I may be doing something wrong here, because i observed Mars the other night through my 8 inch reflector and it seemed far too bright to make any detail out. I'm very new to planetary observing, so perhaps i'm making a glaring mistake that would be obvious to you more experienced guys?

[Towa]

Hi HW Brucey

Assuming that the scope is cooled down and the mirrors collimated, then what magnification are you using?

Mars is small at the moment, and its not until I get my scope to 200x that I start to pick things up. Having just said

that, the North polar cap is quite large and bright and visible at lower magnifications.

If seeing conditions are quite decent then you want to be using 20x - 30x per inch of aperture, even more if the seeing is very good.

Have you been able to pick out the North polar cap? If not, then I would say that you need to increase the magnification.

Much of the detail is subtle to say the least, and comes and goes with seeing conditions.

Mars is a planet where you have to put time in at the eyepiece, to gain the experience

necessary to pick out the finer detail. When I started, I could not make anything out,

then after a couple of sessions I observed the Syrtis Major and boy what a feeling that was.

[Neil27]

I'm hoping to catch it with the TOA, not seen it for quite a few years now.

Hopefully the sky and conditions will play ball......hopefully....

[Towa]

I'm hoping to catch it with the TOA, not seen it for quite a few years now.

Hopefully the sky and conditions will play ball......hopefully....

Neil

I have a TSA-102, and that gave me stunning views of Mars during the years 2007/2008. I fully expect a TOA to do even better.

[russ]

Much of the detail is subtle to say the least, and comes and goes with seeing conditions.

Mars is a planet where you have to put time in at the eyepiece, to gain the experience

necessary to pick out the finer detail. When I started, I could not make anything out,

then after a couple of sessions I observed the Syrtis Major and boy what a feeling that was.

Thats excellent advice and i'm really not sure many realise what is needed for a good view of the red planet. More than any other planet, Mars requires serious time at the eyepiece to bring out those subtle details.

[shadow]

I ''discovered'' Mars two days ago by accident. I thought what's that bright red dot in the eastern sky to the right of Leo and I thought that must be Mars. Cked it via Stellarium and got the confirmation

question guys. Stellarium says it's coming closer. I tried to find out when it's closest but I'm not sure. Is this correct:

January 28th, 2010 , 00:06:03

[jarbi]

Still not seen it this year. It will be my first look through the 16" dob so looking forward to it. I wonder how much detail I'll see.

Don't miss it Doc, for me the "first Mars" was yesterday evening with my 16" LB. It was stunning, even considering the low position around midnight and the average seeing. I was using a Baader binoviewer with coma corrector, it was really amazing ! I attempted to take some video shots also with DMK31 and 3x barlow ( tracked with the TNT of JMI ), this evening I will see what comes out from it :-).