"seeing" Mars

[Domol (Domenic)]

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!)

[davidpretorius]

low on the horizon means that you will not get good views. How have the stars been at higher altitude or have you looked at saturn in the morning?

[laika (Brenton)]

Domol,
I have my scope set up in the dandenongs at Upper Beaconsfield and have had the same issues. If its not cloud that rolls in from the ranges it is heat haze. With mars low in the sky it makes things a little difficult.
Last Saturday I set up to image Mars but it was so bad that even with 2.5x power mate fitted the image was jumping all over the computer screen. visually it was no better.
Early hours of Sunday morning Saturn rose above the tree line and I imaged that with good success. See 1st Saturn for the season in solar images section, my best to date.
Good luck in viewing Mars.

Regards
Brenton.

[Domol (Domenic)]

Thanks for the responses so far
No i didn't try stars towards to zenith, but that's a good idea to check local conditions. I haven't tried saturn at the same time either to compare.
I've just had 2 weeks off work and was amazed that i could not get just one night with good seeing! Mars is always hard, but this year it's been impossible to get a good visual glimpse. I even looked at the collimation of my scope, but it looked ok. The summer heat must adding an extra factor too. oh well there's always Mars 2010 to look forward to!

[goober (Doug)]

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!)

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.

[Valmir]

What telescope was that i can barely see it with my tasco galaxiee.

[caleb]

i looked at mars, only 100X. most powerful at the moment
i cant see much except for this litle dark tinges, kinda like mountains or something, am i right.
I tend to notice more everytime i look, cant wate till i got more EP's and a barlow.

[skairey]

I live in South Morang and I get Mars clearly at 11.00pm onwards, I have only had a few nights that I have lost it due to cloud but most nights it's just hanging around.