Quote:
Originally Posted by rmcpb
Its all in the collimation of your scope, your tracking ability (my equatorial platform makes a HUGE difference here), the quality of your eyepieces and your experience (you learn to see subtle things over time).
I was out the other night looking at Mars and initially it was an orange blob but after a while it had an icecap and some dark markings on it.
|
Oh yes, I agree with Rob here. The other night I was admiring the surface detail on Mars and the ice caps and my 13 yr old son came out and asked me what I was looking at. He had a squiz at 575x mag and said all he could see was an orange disc.
I spent 5 minutes jogging Mars back for him and exclaiming how blind he must be to not be able to see what I could see quite easily and clearly. His vision wasnt very dark adapted and is normally quite good, but he just couldnt make anything out. It was VERY strange for me as I couldnt understand why he possibly didnt see any details. After 5 mins he gave up in disgust and went back inside (probably because I was stressing him out as well).
This may have something to do with it, patience and knowing what you are looking for.....oh, yeah...collimation, I should have mentioned that before. Bad collimation is a detail killer.
Cheers
Chris