From: "Tim" <tjp314@pacbell.net>

Date: October 26, 2005 11:23:40 AM MDT

To: Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com

Subject: Marine Layer in So. Cal.


Well, I had a few hours of clear sky last night.  If it hadn't been for equipment problems and 

recentering Mars everytime I "undewed" my corrector, I'd have had more to talk about.


What I did try was using a lower power projection.  I'd been using the 5X powermate, which 

made Mars about 160-170 pixels across, or about 1/8" per pixel.  Contrast at that scale was 

low and detail in my poor to so-so seeing was pretty soft, so I decided to bump it down a bit.


Well, the only other option I had was a couple 2x shorty barlows, and stacking them gave me 

about the same image scale as the 5x, so I removed the lens from one, put in a 2 degree 

PADC to add more projection distance and reduce atmospheric dispersion some, but the 

image scale is still too small.  I have a 2.5X Televue and an old Meade 3x, but they were with 

my other scopes in my basement, and that's 3 floors down and around the back of the house, 

and I didn't want to wake anybody up running up and down the stairs.


It was interesting, though.  Definitely able to process a sharp image in poor seeing better 

than at the larger scale.  


The results are on my home computer, so I'll have to process them and uplink the best this 

evening.


-Tim.