Quote:
Originally Posted by Domol
Has anyone in melbourne had good "seeing" for Mars
I've been trying to get a good view for over 2 weeks, but seeing has averaged from fair to poor!. Even with low powers. It's it just the low placement of mars or is it my local conditions? Any comments appreciated.
Domenic (going off to bed now!)
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Domol,
It's been pretty bad - low placement of Mars places it closer to cooling rooftops, etc. I'm not too far from you, and have only had one really good view of Mars on the 7th of January. From my notes...
Mars - it was past midnight and the seeing had settled down nicely. With the scope balanced at 270x, I swung down to Mars for my usual disappointing view. Wow! Rather nice, with Mars looking red and ruddy. Lunar eclipse ruddy. Obvious large dark triangular marking over the surface of the planet. I couldn't work out why the sudden and dramatic improved view of the planet, compared with all the washed out pale pink views I'd had over the past month. I then remembered I still had the narrowband filter in place! I'm not sure in terms of the physics exactly what I was doing, but I was impressed with the planetary detail I was seeing through the filter at 270x. I whipped the filter out and sure enough - pale pink Mars was back, but I could see the triangular feature albeit with much less contrast. I need to research this happy accident.