Hi Pete

I was hoping you were out imaging last night and would post here!

Finally managed to get a look at Mars last night with a 6" Europa. Was
able to make out the long dark band above (well looks like to the South)
of the equator, but was a bit disappointed that I was unable to resolve
much more detail, e.g. last year I was able to see a polar cap. Although
you capture much more detail in your image than I was able to see
myself, it does make me think that I was probably doing not too bad in
getting the main features with the equipment available. I would like to
try again to see if I can get the darker material at the south pole - I
didn't get that last night.

I took the opportunity to try out my AE (BC&F) binoviewer with generic
25mm plossls and either the magni-max lens or an Orion Shorty plus
Barlow. To my relatively inexperienced eyes, views through both
binoviewer setups were comparable in resolution to single viewing
through a 6mm ortho. Using both eyes is very comfortable, though it took
a bit of time to get it set up initially. At least on Mars last night,
there wasn't a noticeable loss of detail by having the extra surfaces.
Probably limited by other aspects of the equipment and level of experience.

Anyway, thanks again for sharing the image.

Cheers
Dave





Pete Lawrence wrote:
Very windy in Selsey last night. Image was being rocked back and forth
like someone had hold of the scope and was shaking it! A bit of
moisture has also crept into the main body of the tube (which will be
dealt with today).

This was a first for me as I'd set up the LX200 for remote operation.
Worked very well, despite the wind.

A bit of a bonus really as the forecasts had me down for rain and
cloud all night!

http://www.digitalsky.org.uk/Mars/mars-20051031.html