anybody going to take pictures of Mars on Tuesday?

Nah....ya gotta rig your flash to go off a few minutes before the shutter does....otherwise you don't light up the target...

I shot a roll of film on the 9th but the pictures came out terrible. I used an 8" Celestron and the exposures were all too long so the planet looks like a maggot. I was gonna try again on the 14th when the moon was next to it but missed that night. We had plans to try it again tomorrow night but now it's cloudy, don't know if it'll be clear enough.

There's still at least a week left. I may get another shot at it. My biggest problem is the trees around my place obscure it until about 2:30 in the morning.

Sure is an awesome sight though...

I might try if my 35mm attachment gets in from Meade. Color and black and white just to check it out. We've a 120 degree arch or so out front where the sky it totally clear of any obstructions. If I do happen to get some clean and clear shots I'll post some for others to check out. Though I am not really sure how well my 70 will pull it in yet, just started with it one year back at Christmas. International Space Station and the Moon are going to be shot also as both are running right over top of me at night right now.

Needs so filters also I am guessing because of the reflection on the Lab, looks like a freaking star it's so bright.

Bit low in the sky for us northerners. Too much atmospheric instability at such low angles. Still, had a look last week and my 140mm Mak-Cass showed plenty of detail and the polar cap was startling. A real brilliant white.

Mars will be a fine view the whole of September. The best day was Aug 29th, with a magnitude of -2.9 and a diameter of 25.0 arc seconds. This will drop to -2.2 and 21.2" by the end of Sept. So get viewing!!!

I can take a good picture of it, got a sony digital 5.0 megapixel camera that takes pictures in the size of 2592x1944. shouldn't be anyproblem at night either as long as i use a stand and get my settings in order, if it turns out decent i might post it as a wall and see if it gets through.

Here's what I got the other night.  It's way over-exposed at only 10 seconds. Lens was an 8" Celestron which works out to 1,100mm at f8. Film was Fuji 800.

Some recent drawings of Mars. This is how it should look in aperatures of 8"-12"

Here's a CCD image taken with an 8" scope. About a hundred images are stacked and enhanced to get this view.

Fuzzy! That's Awesome!

I recently got given a 4" (or mebbe 5") Tasco - what are my chances?

I'm in Sydney Australia so on a clear night I can start looking from around 8:00PM, but even using the 4mm eyepiece it's really bright, almost like I need some sort of filter. Is it posssible to rig up something from 'round the house that might work (as a filter that is)?

I think I should clean my telescope that has been sitting her for a while and see if I can adjust the focus and my digi cam to pick up a good image. But I seem to be lazy lately

You know, I though I was looking at Mars when I looked up at the sky.

I went camping this weekend and I saw the clear night sky. Very nice and this big big big redish light in the sky.

I though it was the North Star but grom what I remember, it is on the tip of the little dipper...

anyway, it was really bright. Thanks for sharing guys. It feels like we are all looking at the same time

http://www.msnbc.com/news/957424.asp






Mars sparkles as a reddish-orange point of light over Poodle Rock at Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada. Observers in mid-northern latitudes should see the planet as the brightest object in the night sky, rising in the southeast at about sunset.

-- Source MSN

http://www.hubblesite.org/

Hubble is getting some good ones.