Mars is on the wane while Saturn is on the rise, images

D'ohhh :lol:
thats what you get when you write a post after midnight. :oops:

Neil,
Saturn is always a crowd pleaser, its even better the Jupiter with its so called Great "red" spot, believe me whan I tell you that there is nothing red about it.

Well done Dave, Two top notch planetary images

Neil,
Saturn is always a crowd pleaser, its even better the Jupiter with its so called Great "red" spot, believe me whan I tell you that there is nothing red about it.

Well Dave I've been too lazy to stay up (or get up!) for Jupiter, so far. But in a way I'm letting the planets come to me and trying to devote some time to each before moving on. Mars has been brilliant even though I only barely made out any "details". Venus always makes for a nice dynamic target. And now Saturn is providing me with stunning views. Seeing Titan has been another first for me. So I'm happy to wait a little longer for Jupiter. Also, Mercury has evaded me on the few mornings I've been up (apart from one glorious sighting on the morning I was picking up the Skylux!). But February looks like a good time to catch the Messenger in the evenings and I just noticed a conjuntion with Uranus on 14th Feb but not sure how the twilight will affect it.

Thats great Neil, Its great to see someone with such enthusiasm.

Dave,
According to reviews on the web, the LPI gives worse images then the ToUcam, I dont know about the celestron camera, anyone here got one??
How did the galaxy images come out, how much can you see of them ???

I thought the LPI might just contain a CMOS chip which would explain why it might perfrom less well than a webcam. I think the Celestron version is pretty much the same. For planetary images, it looks to me like the webcams are giving the best images (and Damian Peach states that he uses the ToUcam Pro for his high resolution stuff). All I can suggest is, if you haven't already done it, is get the mods done. Oh, and collimate, focus, guide....

The five galaxies I bagged are definately interesting. I'll try and get them uploaded for to look at.

Cheers

Dave

Maybe this is one reason for the reduced detail visible...

Sky and Telescope

If you haven't been seeing much on Mars with your telescope, it's not just that the planet is getting small. A thin haze of airborne dust in the Mars's southern latitudes has reduced the contrast of surface features.

...along with the clouds, the wind and the seeing

Michael.