It was late - couldn't sleep so what the heck drag the scope out at 3am and have a gander at Mars. Looked a little swollen at even low power, checked with high power - looked very furry and unresolved. Had the collimation gone way out? grease on the lenes? Out with the little scope - same problem. Was I just too tired? At last the pre-dawn light spread over the eastern sky revealing a fine but subtstantial layer of high cirrus cloud over most of the sky. I had been looking through cloud not obvious in just the finderscope and to the naked eye.
Sanity restored and off to bed.
