Mars 19th July vgood seeing

[John Hothersall]

SPX350 F41.3, PGRFlea3, Baader RGB filters.

Seeing was forecast to be good and did not disappoint. The star collimation Airy Disc looked perfect in focus with steady central bright spot with arcs and rings visible constantly.

During some of the captures the seeing looked 9/10 as the image just vibrated in focus. Unfortunately Mars is not at its best and is a little small now at 14.26" and 89.33% Phase and the contrast compared to May seems a lot lower.

Regards, John.

[Atmos (Colin)]

Very nice John!
Wish we were getting that kind of seeing down in Melb!

[Camelopardalis (Dunk)]

Excellent John, well done

[Sebbie (Sebastian)]

Fantastic John, Olympus caldera looks sweet!

[kkara4 (Krishan)]

very nice John. I was out Monday and Tuesday nights, how did you go with the pesky intermittent cloud? or were you sending it all my way lol.

my seeing started off pretty horrendous on both nights then stabilised quite nicely. the humidity was also horrendous! nothing the hairdryer couldnt fix

[John Hothersall]

Yes Krishan, humidity hit 100pc early on with water dripping everywhere.

The cloud got me at 9.15pm as I was starting on the Moon, it seemed to come from nowhere thick and fast for the rest of the night on 19th.

I use an hand made EVA foam dew shield over 14" Newtonian which seems effective in delaying mirror misting but it won't work forever - gives me 2-3 more hours.

Thanks for comments, John.