Tonight, after about 2 weeks. I was able to view Mars. It was clear
when I got off work and arrived home at about 10:20 PM, Mars was
pretty high up, for Mars. I dragged out the 10" dob and plugged in
the fans.

After about 30 min of fan time I was treated to some amazing views
of Mars. The ice cap is MUCH smaller then in May. I started out with
the 8-24 zomm and rapidly setteled on 8mm. Most of the time the
seeing was "mushy", but when it steadied a T shap was evident. A
dark (or Texas) "T". As I sat and watched, I noticed that it was
steading a bit and at times the tips of the "T" feathered in to
forks. At times some darks banding was seen through part of the top
of the "T".

I found that a red filter (25A) improved the view of Mars the best.
The contrast between the red surface and the dark areas was
increased. I'd add a filter, tune the focus, and settle in to view.
The seeing improved so I tossed in a 5mm (I say seeing, but this
could be my mirror cooling). I liked it best with the red filter. A
stack of 2 light blue filters (82 I think) gave Mars a whiteish cast
(think cream siclie (?sp) orange and white). Brighter view then with
the red. Overall effect was to act like a mild neutral density
filter - though it did bring out the pole. Medium Green (?#) brought
out the pole and allowed you to see the dark "T" but did not to
appear to be a big imporvement. A stack of Medium red and medium
green dimmed it too much for the 10".

After watching for detail with and without the red filter with the
5mm, I went back to the 8 with and without the red filter. THis was
less effected by seeing. Then a 26 mm plossl with and without the
red filter. I thought that I could see some detail at times even at
this lower power.

5mm - 285x
8mm - 178x
24mm - 59x
26mm - 54x

Wow, after a little more then 2 weeks I got to see Mars. I hope
that you did too.