Moon & Mars (again....!)

[JohnP]

Hi All - Popped out last night for an hour or so to have a look at the moon (shame it was almost full) - Anyway took a few quick images using my MN56, ToUcam & X3 barlow..

The first is of the SW corner of the moon - it shows Crater Schickard (large one) & triple grouping of Phocylides, Wargentin & Nasmyth - Schickard is about 130 miles long - some of the smaller features in this image are only about 6-8 miles long... The views of the moon through the eyepiece were stunning...



Second image is of Mars again - it wasn't far from the near full moon so I wasn't expecting much - it actually came out better than I expected...




Cheers,  John

[Rocket Pooch]

quite cool John, I like the moon, but then again its my second favorit thing to look at.  Have you collimated you're scope yet?

[JohnP]

No not yet.... I know it's not far off though.. I keep toying with the idea of moving the primary forward half an inch so I can get the EOS to focus at prime - so it's not worth spending too long aligning all the optics until I've done that - I just need to pluck up the courage to move it..

Cheers,  John

[Anonymous]

you should do it now, then the images will be 50% better.....

[Anonymous]

oops forgot to login or post this http://www.arnholm.org/astro/collimation/

Chris