I have had very good luck with the recent Mars opposition by following these steps to ensure excellent planetary images in my lowly ETX-90.
Very simple, EVERY night, I put my ETX-90 RA on the porch about 2 hours before I go to bed. Just before I turn in,I take a quick look at what-ever is out there ( 6-months ago, Mars, now, Saturn) and a fully cooled telescope shows everything possible for that night!
We all know that every night is different, no matter how well you predict the outcome, so I decided to put the scope out every night, until the atmosphere cooperates!
The result? My wife and I saw a perfect Mars image days before the opposition, a fine look at Syrtis major, with a vivid south polar ice cap at 200-plus power (optica Ortho 6mm),all orange and blue, and white! When the hubble pictures came out in the local newspaper (again, Syrtis Major), my wife could say to her co-workers, " This is what Mars looked like in my husband's telescope"!
I now have my wonderful XT-8 trained on Saturn every night waiting for those unpredictable perfect conditions. I have tried to predict the perfect conditions for planetary viewing, to no avail, so finally I decided to try every night, and this greatly lowers the odds...Chris Brown
Very simple, EVERY night, I put my ETX-90 RA on the porch about 2 hours before I go to bed. Just before I turn in,I take a quick look at what-ever is out there ( 6-months ago, Mars, now, Saturn) and a fully cooled telescope shows everything possible for that night!
We all know that every night is different, no matter how well you predict the outcome, so I decided to put the scope out every night, until the atmosphere cooperates!
The result? My wife and I saw a perfect Mars image days before the opposition, a fine look at Syrtis major, with a vivid south polar ice cap at 200-plus power (optica Ortho 6mm),all orange and blue, and white! When the hubble pictures came out in the local newspaper (again, Syrtis Major), my wife could say to her co-workers, " This is what Mars looked like in my husband's telescope"!
I now have my wonderful XT-8 trained on Saturn every night waiting for those unpredictable perfect conditions. I have tried to predict the perfect conditions for planetary viewing, to no avail, so finally I decided to try every night, and this greatly lowers the odds...Chris Brown
There's something on the Moon! 8O
