So far unimpressed!

[Nortilus (Josh)]

Ok, this was posted at 3.09am sat 19th March. I stayed up all night waiting for Mars to get high enough to view. Now, I dunno really what to expect out of the little red planet, but I remember it looking bigger through my tasco wobbletronic 2" refactor than it did this morning with my 8" newt dob using a 9mm plossl.
Please tell me that it will get bigger or something.

Edit: just looked it up in my astronomy 2005 book. It does get bigger and better, In flipping November!

[iceman (Mike)]

Yeah you need to wait, it's tiny at the moment, barely even a disc in my 10".

November will be better.

[ving (David)]

lol

I also assume that you used the same magnification in the 2" as you did last night?

november hey... hmm...

[Dave47tuc (David)]

Mars is a very difficult object to observe.

Please be patient, as it gets bigger Mars will be easier to observe later in the year.

[Mick (Michael)]

In 2001 the Martian dust storms made it difficult to see the features on the surface. 2003 was the best I have ever seen. This year Mars is further north but it should be good viewing baring dust storms, it will have a disk of 19.95"at a mag of -2.3 on the 7th of November. Mars is an interesting object to watch grow and change in the months leading up to and past opposition don't give up on Mars just yet. Here is a single photo of the 2003 opposition I took, very much what it looked like through the EP.

[ving (David)]

when you say single pic... er what settings, equip, etc did you use?

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

Unfortunately, Mars is a very hard target. I am always amazed at how hard it is to see properly when it is right next door to us. At it's best I have seen a slightly fuzzy reddish/orange orb.

I have previously found that less magnigication does help with Mars.

[Mick (Michael)]

Originally posted by ving
when you say single pic... er what settings, equip, etc did you use?

Ving, I was using an 8" SCT Meade Lx90, 26mm Ep and a Nikon coolpix 4500 held up to the Ep to take the photo, at the time I didn't have a cable release or a camera adaptor so it was just focus, point and shoot. I took 45 photos that night only a few were keepers. The exposure details are 1/15 sec at f/7 iso200.
Thanks.

[atalas]

Hi all

A little note about Mars,the 2003 closet aproach has passed ,but the best view I ever had of Mars was in 2001.

On one night just before the major sand storm set in,and man what a view it was!

The dark fetures were like velvet !I could see a Black and ollive coulor through them a very 3 D affect just unreal!

I was using my C8 classic at the time just blew my mind and would'nt you know it,no one to share the view with!oh well that's life I guess.

So the piont to the story is check Mars out at every oposition It will supprise you yet! and when you get it on a night with good seeing you'll always go back.

Clear Sky's

Louie