Anyone Else Having trouble with Mars??

Thought it was my scope out of Col.( Celestar 8" /TV Everbrite Dia..) but it is dialed right in. When Mars reaches it's highest point in the South/Southwest I start with a relatively low power (68x)EP, 30mm. 2" Apogee WideScan II. I get a Yellowish Orb. Increase the power with a UO 7mm. Ortho (290x) and I get a bigger Yellowish orb with the faintest hint on color variation towards the center of the planet. Could it just be "Bad Seeing" ? Almost like trying to focus Venus clearly..John Meiners, Astoria, OR

What type scope is it? Did you give it enough time to cool off?

John,

I have viewed Mars the past two nights from portland. Views were very so-so. I was able to see ice cap and dark rim around the ice but not sharp at all. This was with a 8 dob from my driveway. The smoke from fires in central oregon have caused incredible sky glow from the light reflections toward the east. Around august 5th in central oregon I had killer views in my 18 inch dob, using celestron variable polarizer. I held the polarizer up to Mars naked eye, dialed down to dim, then placed on the eye piece. Hopefully smoke will clear for Oregon Starparty next week.

Here in Los Angeles, it was hot for the last two weeks, and I wasn't even able to go past 150X on Mars. Only the last few nights has it finally gotten better - I was able to use 250X-300X last night, which I would consider average seeing. Summer can be tough on seeing, since heat rises all night off rooftops and concrete that soaked up the sun's rays all day.

-Jake

I'm Viewing from Chatham Ont Canada About 45 minutes east of Detroit Michigan.

I'm having the same thing.... a Week or two ago it was easy to see detail.... The last few nights it's been tedious... The cap is easy but I have to look really hard for detail...

This applies for both the Orion st100 refractor and the Orion xt10 dob..... I thought it was just me but am kind of relieved to hear others are having problems too..

My biggest problem is ghosting.... I'm using a light shield, have flocked the inside of the telescope, have flocked the focuser and still I have ghosting in the xt10. I assume it is because the planet is getting so bright as it wasn't like this a few weeks back.



Mark V

Last Saturday the seeing was similar to yours, no real details like the week before.
I am in So. California.

John,

I live in an extremely humid enviornment in Florida. As such, I seemed to be having the same problem as you from time to time while using my binoviewers. Guess what? I discovered that the heat from my eye was causing some condensation to form on the EP's when I got in tight. How weird is that.

Paul Atkinson
AstroProProducts.com