Mars through Skymax 127 MAK

[Steve1976]

Hey folks.

I knew Mars was going to look pretty small with a 5 inch scope but I thought it would be a bit better than it was! I haven't got a barlow lens and I only have eyepieces offering x60 and x150 magnification at the moment. But nevertheless I thought now was a particularly good time for viewing Mars. I've checked a lot of peoples videos out of Mars on youtube etc with say 6 inch scopes and it looked MUCH bigger!

Have I just been expecting too much or could I be doing something wrong? (I am very new to all this!) I've seen quite a few other things through this scope and I've been very pleased so far.

[dweller25]

Mars is getting quite small now so you will need x200 minimum to get a half decent view. If you can push to x250 then all the better.

HTH

[Wurzil]

Hi,

Mars is past its best now really - it is getting smaller and showing less detail all the time. You need about 200x before you really start seeing good detail even when mars is at opposition (which was at the end of january). It is a challenging object and you have to train your eye to see detail even on good nights at high mag.

Have you tried Saturn? - it will still be quite small at 150x, but you will see the rings and wont disappoint.

Barlowing the 150x to get 300x times is probably too much for your scope (and the british skies on most nights) so its probably best that you make your next purchase a new eyepiece with a shorter focal length rather than a barlow.

try an 7mm EP to get 214x to use as your high power eyepiece.

Good luck

Warren

[Steve1976]

Thanks guys - its given me hope for better views in the future.

I haven't had a chance to see Saturn just yet. I'm in Ukraine and it's still too cold and snowy and so I'm stuck viewing from my balcony which faces west.

That's great advice on the eyepieces too!

[muddy]

hi

I have only had my 127 foe a couple of weeks but the first time I saw mars I actually saw the ice cap using 2x barlow and 10mm ep(pushing it a bit).

I have tried a couple of times since but not been able to see any detail. I must have been very fortunate to have good veiwing on that first night. So it is possible even with a small 127

muddy

[Steve1976]

So its definitely possible to get better detail on Mars with this scope. Great news.

I definitely need to get some new eyepieces.

a seperate question - is it possible to buy a 12mm eye piece? That way I could use a x2 barlow and get max magnification.

[dweller25]

These may be of interest, the 12.5mm would give x240 with a barlow. Orthoscopics are very sharp.......

Lyra Optic - Eyepieces

[John]

So its definitely possible to get better detail on Mars with this scope. Great news.

Keep observing at every opportunity - Mars is steadily getting smaller night after night now so the details are getting harder and harder to discern. I saw fine markings on the disk and a well defined polar cap tonight at 240x with my 6" F/8 refractor.

The more you observe, the more details you will see - time at the eyepiece costs nothing and often reveals the detail more effectively than a new eyepiece will

[Space Cowboy]

Mars is really tough. Visibility has to be very good to see any surface detail. Only on one night did i see anything other than the ice cap and that was stacking 2 2x barlows with a 32mm plossl and the star diagonal giving a magnification of 288X.

I've found the 10mm and 25mm eyepices supplied with the skymax not up to the task of Mars.

[The Warthog]

As Stuart said, Mars is never easy. You need to look for a long time and wait for the moments of clarity when surface detail exposes itself for a second. It's OK to push the capabilities of the scope a bit, but if your scope came with decent eps, you should be OK. Having a more expensive ep won't make those moments of clarity more frequent.

[BazMark]

I never realised till reading on this forum that the Barlow can be put in front of the star diagonal to increase it's power.

I got some good views of both Mars and Saturn last night using my SW deluxe 2x Barlow like this and a Kson 16.8mm ortho which came free with my Skymax 127.

Mark

[Steve1976]

Thanks for all the replies - all really helpfull!

[dweller25]

Steve, I just posted some drawings in the sketching section from last night of Mars and Saturn. The details were more subtle than my drawing skills !!!!