3-19-16 - Long Island, New York, USA
Mars and Saturn - All reports are as seen in the eyepiece.
Orion XT8i used manually, Celestron 8-24 zoom, Meade 4.5 mm HD60, Daytson 2X barlow, mix of filters
Clear sky, approx 35 degrees F. 0-3 mph breeze, clear sky. seeing good, transparency less than optimal.
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Mars - 5 am.
At all magnifications between 50 and 300X Mars was a red/orange ball with a whitish glow at the lower right area.Perhaps just uneven lighting or perhaps polar ice cap. Hard to tell.
A glow appeared around the planet and 4 points of glow emanated out from the planet. Chalk that up to less than transparent atmosphere and a bright object. Could not get a sharp image at any magnification.
Crystal view moon filter cut some of the glow but did not help on sharpness.
Wanted to try the Orion ND 25% moon filter but put in DGM Nebulae filter by mistake. Produced a well defined orange ball with no glow around it. Better image than before but still no details. Whitish area no longer visible.
My neighbor came out to leave for work and was startled to see me there, in front of the scope. When I said good morning she was relieved to see it was me.
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Saturn - About 5:30 am
Using the zoom at 50X you could easily see the rings and the gap to the planet. Fairly clear image but lots of glow around it. Seeing looked pretty good. When I zoomed to 150X the image quality was good but no details to the planet itself.
HD60 4.5 mm/266X Image good but no planetary details.
Added 2X Daytson barlow - larger image but softer focus.
Back to HD60 alone - Adding filters
23A - a hint of cloud bands on the planet
56 - green image but no additional detail
21 - Orangish - no help
82A - no help
12 - slight hit of planetary cloud bands
Just for fun I tried my OIII filter - no help
6:10 am - East is starting to light up. Clouds are rolling in from SW. Time to pack it up.
All in all, a good session.