Mars ?

[russ]

hence the magnification needs to be 150x - 250x and upwards.

Truth me when I tell you that our Northern European weather conditions rarely support the necessary magnification to see detail on Mars.

That is true but Mars has excellent elevation this opposition, so the needed powers should be achievable more readily. In fact I have already had no problem hitting well above these powers in the morning sky and seen a decent amount of detail. I think Mars is already worthy of observation.

[TheThing]

I concur with russ. I was using 220x the other evening with no problems.

[ashenlight]

There's no harm in trying anyway, you might surprise yourself can't wait to get out there and have another morning observing session.

Good luck with the collimation Daz