Mars - 1st January 2010

[dweller25]

Mars was a great sight this evening with very steady seeing - in fact the best seeing I've seen in two years :-)

Syrtis Major, Mare Tyrrhenum, Mare Serpentis and Hellas all stood out well in the north of the drawing.

Nilosyrtis in the south of the drawing stood out too,tapering off towards the east. North Polar cap is still clearly white but looks a little duller than a month ago.

Time was 00:05UT - 1st January 2010, 5" F/8 Takahashi refractor with Celestron/Baader Binoviewer at x238, CM=295', seeing IV.

[Towa]

You've got the Syrtis Major captured very well.

On a general note, can you use the binoviewers without a barlow lens for viewing with the FS-128.

With my TSA I can observe at 40x with the binoviewers only if I use a prism diagonal. My WO dielectric diagonal requires more in-focus so cannot be used.

For the planets I use a barlow lens, so focus is not a problem.

[dweller25]

Hello Towa,

I use the Celestron/Baader Binoviewer and do not need to use a Barlow at all with the FS128 or my TSA102. In the FS I have about 1" of inwards focus left when a planet is in focus.

[Towa]

Many thanks for the reply dweller25. If I Up-grade in the future then I think I will go for a pair of Celestron/Baader units.

At the moment I'm extremely pleased with my cheap Seban units and I can get them to work at low powers with the TSA.