Hey Smyth,
I thought I would give Mars a go this morning at about 4.30am. I have never attempted to view Mars because of the unsociable hours it keeps. I just bought a pentax xw10 and a TV 2X barlow so I thought that this may be a good combo for this target in my 12" dob. This gave me 300x which was pushing it a bit but I tried with and without the barlow. In both cases, I could definately see the polar caps and some dark detail around the centre. The polar caps were hard to see, I think because the whole planet was very bright and you are looking for it being white at either end. a bit of contrast between the bulk of the planet and the southern cap was all I could see. Im not sure I even saw anything on the northern end, but I believe the northern cap to be significantly smaller than the southern. I thought I saw something but could have been good imagination.
The brownish patching through the centre was particularly visible. And Orion neb was obscene!!!! All the wispy ends were curling up and I had to keep moving the scope to get it all in, wishing I had a xw30 instead
Im very happy with this, especially after reading another post by astroron saying that the seeing was a bit average last night. Also clearly saw saturns cassini division and some darker colouring on the planet itself. Cant wait to get to a dark site and have a go with these new eyepieces. The xw10 is my first premium eyepiece so Im not an expert by any means. What I can tell you is that it is worth every cent. Everything about it says precision. Even the action when you twist the eyecup up and down is absolutely like butter. Perfectly made. Very very happy with this. That said, I did a lot of reading on what EP to choose and I knew I wanted an xw10, (particularly after one IISer who I cant remember proclaimed it as "probably the best 10mm EP ever produced") MattT is currently selling his xw collection on the classifieds but I would be quick if you want them. Otherwise, I just joined astromart in the US. Much more second hand gear goes through there than here due to population. It costs $15 to join but could get a bargain. I just bought a 16mm T2 Nagler there which hasnt arrived yet for $A200 posted. I also saw a T1 9mm Nagler there 2 days ago for $A107 posted. Although this is an older TV, apparently the optics are relatively unchanged over time. This would have been a bargain. My personal view when deciding on the xw was that I feel upgrading by a little bit at a time results in losing money on resell. If you do this several times on your way to getting something top shelf, youve lost money several times. Obviously budget dictates but that is my thought process these days.