Finally got a good view of Mars

[PhilW]

I have been suffering the "small wiggling blob" syndrome for a few weeks now. But at 2am this morning, Mars was a great sight from inner Melbourne. The atmosphere was a bit unsteady, but every minute or so the planet would suddenly snap into clarity, & the features & polar cap would be easily visible. It was just a matter of staying at the scope for those sudden moments of atmospheric stability.

I tried various eyepiece combos, although I lack specialised planetary eyepieces. Best view was with a Pentax XW 7mm, Televue 2x barlow, and a Baader moon & skyglow filter. Scope used was 35cm F/4.6 dobsonian on a tracking platform.

Phil

[davidpretorius]

yes, that High pressure system served us well last night...........nice views from tassie too

[goober (Doug)]

I was out last night too for an hour - midnight to 1am. Stars were rock steady.

Like you I had some nice Mars moments where surface detail just snapped into view, then vanished. It's subtle stuff in a small scope, but it was there. Best compromise of magnification vs detail was 192x.

[§AB]

^^ write up an Obs report man I really enjoy readin them.

I was out too 10.45pm to 3.30am. Seeing was poor, despite the fact that the stars were "rock steady". This is Melbourne after all, land of *insert expletive* weather.

I spotted some surface detail, seemed rather washed out but what would I expect when a slightly defocused image showed a severe boiling.

[Stephen65]

I was imaging the Moon last night - transparency was good and seeing wasn't bad up high, but the Moon only got to 30 degrees altitude so the results weren't great. I had a go at Mars with my black and white DMK21 and posted the results in another thread.