Mars still a bit blury

[Dazraz]

Went out last night around 11pm hunting mars down - Found mars but was still a bit blury - i could see a feint goldish light with red at the top of the planet. I must admit seeing is getting clearer than my last sighting of mars and im sure but cant be certain that i saw detail for a slight second - im still finding keeping both eyes open whilst viewing does give me some good results - The instrumets i was using for the night was as follow

8" Dob

17 mm plossl

7.5 plossl

Regards

ps now i just have to get around the wife for my barlow for my birthday

[John]

I was looking at Mars last night with my 5" refractor. At 171x with the scope very well cooled the pole cap was clear and one or two darker markings on the disk were detectable but they are still rather vague. It's quite a challenge to tease the details out of Mars - it's definately one that needs as much time at the eyepiece as possible during a session.

[Beulah]

Daz,

I have the same telescope and the same eye pieces. I have observed Mars at 5:30am and 11.00pm and I still cannot resolve any detail except for a hint of the polar cap.

As with Jupiter, it is worth watching for those moments of clarity - however long it takes.

[stev74]

I've had the same problem recently and not really had any detail out of Mars, which has been a bit disappointing. Until last night that is and I got the best seeing conditions I've had for over a month.

I waited until after Midnight so Mars was at a decent height and spent a good hour at the EP. Even then it was mostly just fleeting moments of clarity at about 156x after a while I was seeing the polar cap and a darker (on it's side) 'U' shape.

So keep trying and I'm sure you'll tweak out some detail from Mars eventually, it's worth the wait.

Cheers