Mars 11/10

Well it didn't start wonderful. It was cloudy before 9pm. This was due to tropical storm Tembin. The sky was clear by 9:30pm and conditions were great by 10:00!! Here's an image of the Sinus Sabaeus region with Syrtis Major on the left.

More info at:

http://mars.cstoneind.com

Regards,

Chris

Attached Image:

More image from last night...

Regards,

Chris

Attached Image:

Chris,

Your latest Mars shot is excellent! I was wondering about your experience on Oct 10 when you attempted to "collimate" the C11 while viewing Mars on the video. Did the focus shift greatly with collimation tweaks?

I tried the same thing as an experiment and found the focus blurred significantly everytime I tweaked a collimation knob as little as 1/12 ish of a turn. For the first time I fully appreciated the strong relationship between collimation and sharp focus. My attempts to star collimate using stacked barlows on an unsteady night proved worthless. Until I can figure out the collimation, I cannot visually view Mars with the 2.5x barlow, imaging with the Toucam and barlow do not produce sharp results for me. I look forward to hearing your opinions. Thanks

Regards,
Steve