Mars on September 3, 2018
A warm humid night. I had the telescope dew-heaters on a higher setting than usual.
The sky lacked transparency, but was nice and stable. At first, balancing the
temperature of the telescope against the increasing dew was a bit of a challenge (tube
currents were a killer), but after that Mars did not disappoint. The highlight was that
Olympus Mons could be made out in the 4-inch refractor. This was the first time I had
seen this mega-volcano proper (not just the clouds over it) with a telescope under
6-inches.
The sky lacked transparency, but was nice and stable. At first, balancing the
temperature of the telescope against the increasing dew was a bit of a challenge (tube
currents were a killer), but after that Mars did not disappoint. The highlight was that
Olympus Mons could be made out in the 4-inch refractor. This was the first time I had
seen this mega-volcano proper (not just the clouds over it) with a telescope under
6-inches.