Mars in the early hours

Just looking for some advice on this one as its bugging me. Been looking at Mars in the wee small hours and all i seem to be getting is a whitish blob. With a red filter i think though i'm not sure i can make out a polar cap (throu a webcam)
My C8 is collimated etc.

Could 'poor seeing' be responsible for this ???
I've read about dust storms being particularly bad for the last while as well??

Thanks for any guidance

Hi Der,
It certainly can be poor seeing, other factors are the hight of the planet above the horizon and has your scope cooled down. I'd leave an 8" SCT for atleast 2 hours before I'd use it, if the scope is warm you will not get good images with it.
Mars is one of the more tougher planets to observe, many people see nothing more then a red disk with a white polar cap, on a steady night with a good scope, you'll be able to make out some dark areas, that's pretty much it.
What size eyepiece are you using?

Thanks for that Dave

Was using a 40mm and 32mm and then went to a 9mm. Mars was quite close to the horizon, so that could be the reason.

Mars was quite close to the horizon, so that could be the reason.

That certainly won't help. The lower in the sky the worse the seeing. Also, Mars is still quite a long way off. It will keep getting closer and hence bigger till around Christmas. So, keep looking, it will get better!

Bart.