I , like Laurie have seen details on mars in small scopes , my Takahashi sky90 shows dark markings , polar caps easily but the seeing conditions have to be very good and you need HIGH power , 150x plus and that's in what ever scope you use , mars being red is not sensitive at all to our eyes .
Last Saturday night at a dark sky night here in Perth we were treated to an excellent night and Peters ( StardrifterWA ) 110 WO triplet showed mars as good as it gets at 220x , really nice .
My 127mm Istar performed as good , max'd out at 300x on the night , but as said the seeing was excellent , mars was high and both scopes performed well .
So yes a 6 inch will show plenty . but it takes a great night and lots of patience .
.
Brian.
Quote:
Originally Posted by OzStarGazer
I don't think you can see many details with a 6" telescope... 
Mars will be in opposition in about a month, so that should be the best time. I usually watch it in the early morning. VERY early. |