At some point - i'll take a picture of my telescope doing it's thing with Mars - it defines the phrase Heath Robinson.

Anway - using my Powershot S2IS yesterday...



then my very bad, un-collamated, wobbly, dented, occasionally rusty, dusty 4" reflector, on a dodgy tripod with no fine controls, wobbly paving and a webcam blue-tacked onto the focus assembley...



Might not look like much - but it's the very first time, in more than 15 years of occasional observing that I've seen features on mars with my own eyes

Doug

Not bad, Doug! Looks like you can see an ice cap (the southern, I'd guess) at about the eleven o'clock position , near the limb. If that's the case, then the dark splotch might well be Syrtis Major.

-the other Doug

I'm going to try a few more techniques, then pressgang a friend of mine for a trip to use the 16" reflector at the Uni of Leicester

Doug

Not bad to start with!
You just need to colimate your telescope and wait for a very stable night.
The images will only get better!

Just re-processed.

Took the avi - output as sequential stills - photoshop action to crop, enlarge 400% and unsharp mask, then stacked the results - S.M. much more obvious now

My neigbours have a really bad cheap refractor with a barlow - I may try that instead tonight

Doug

Now, now - the best telescope is one that gets used.

Your cheap little reflector that you got those images with beats the pants off of a bigger, more expensive scope that sits in a shed collecting dust instead of photons

This is the power of digital imaging. Even using an old small telescope and a cheap digital camera, this image equals or exceeds the photos of Mars taken with much larger telescopes on film a decade or two ago.

--Bill

I spy the Pleiades!

I'm using a large refraktor ( 152 mm Diameter with 1200 mm Focal Length ) and at 300X I could easliy see the dust-storm in the Southern hemisphere of the planet Mars on 26th October 2005 ... the hemisphere was completely orange while I could see some 'details' in the other half of the planet.
Let's hope for clear skies and mild nights on 30th October ( Mars closest ) and on 7th November ( Mars in opposition ).
Best regards,
Philip

Hopefully, I may be at the eyepiece of something more powerfull after a talk next Thursday

Doug

Well as Mars is moving away from us... Saturn is a nice target for backyard telescopes

Indeed it is - the moment the clouds bugger off, I want to grab something of it - and Jupiter.

Doug