Clear tonight?

I think the thought of seeing Mars is getting to you Frank :lol:
did you manage to see it ?

Yeah, when you've got a bright Moon around this time of year, it cn be hard to drag any instruments out. Haze (light fog) all over the gaff. It was quite hazy this morning albeit clear skies at dawn. It's a pity we didn't have the Shuttle/ISS passing overhead from launch yesterday. I would have been reeling with a new astrohotography opportunity!

Seanie,

No joy either for me last night, same story - too much fog, haze, moon, neighbours light :evil:

Keith..

You guys missed out. I dragged my ass out of bed at 2:45, got the observatory opened up, and a quick check of seeing revealed Pickering 8 (out of 10)!

I figured that was good enough to do a collimation tune-up, which I did with the primary mirror locked in the binoviewer position. I was observing Mars by about 3:15.

I tried 15mm TV Plossls, 15mm RKEs, and 18mm Pentax SMC orthos. Surprisingly, the RKEs and orthos showed the better color, although the RKEs suffered the most from ghosting and glare reflected from my eyeball. Still, the image scale was better at 15mm (450x), so I spent about 75% of the time with the RKEs, and 25% with the Pentax orthos.

I put in a total of about 45 min and even did my first sketch! Got everything closed up and was back in bed by 4:15.

-- Jeff.

Clouded out here last night as well. We had a clear night two weeks ago so there's still another 2 weeks to go until another one :lol:

Same situation as Frank I might try my hand at the Comet Holmes and see if I can pick up any tail. but I guess as the the bright moon might shine it out.