Post by mikey cee on May 3, 2012 17:03:42 GMT -5
Last night before the clouds moved in from the south I had views of Mars that were 
absolutey amazing. A nice fat gibbous phase with a nice well defined polar cap and a bright cloudy haze over the limb. A nice mottled appearance thru the central regions with darker areas near the both poles. To put it bluntly it was a refractor view. I never have I seen it look that way thru a SC or a dobsonian. The detail was so delicate and fine......you just knew it couldn't possibly be real yet it was. No doubt about it. That was the second time for me with this new Istar R30 lens. Temps were mild and no acclimation was needed for the big lens. Just a scosh of reddish lilac was detectable with no filter in place and thru a #11 green yellow filter it was near like viewing with an apo I'm sure. Tonight promises to be less cloudy with more humidity and I'm hoping for more steady seeing. I have a new set of 12.5mm VT orthos due in by Saturday because the 15mm plossls I'm now using are giving me minor fits with internal reflections etc. My new eyepieces will yield 815x. Thats just 80x per inch of aperture well within the guidelines for this size of lens and steady seeing. Here is the latest pic of my completed scope with its new Istar lens awaiting Mars tonight. 
Mike
absolutey amazing. A nice fat gibbous phase with a nice well defined polar cap and a bright cloudy haze over the limb. A nice mottled appearance thru the central regions with darker areas near the both poles. To put it bluntly it was a refractor view. I never have I seen it look that way thru a SC or a dobsonian. The detail was so delicate and fine......you just knew it couldn't possibly be real yet it was. No doubt about it. That was the second time for me with this new Istar R30 lens. Temps were mild and no acclimation was needed for the big lens. Just a scosh of reddish lilac was detectable with no filter in place and thru a #11 green yellow filter it was near like viewing with an apo I'm sure. Tonight promises to be less cloudy with more humidity and I'm hoping for more steady seeing. I have a new set of 12.5mm VT orthos due in by Saturday because the 15mm plossls I'm now using are giving me minor fits with internal reflections etc. My new eyepieces will yield 815x. Thats just 80x per inch of aperture well within the guidelines for this size of lens and steady seeing. Here is the latest pic of my completed scope with its new Istar lens awaiting Mars tonight. 
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