It was clear so I dragged the 10" out of the garage. After all Mars
will not be this close in how long?

I was playing with the zoom eyepiece and I changed the magification,
lowering it by a factor of two by 2. I thought, this is what it will
look like when it is twixe as far away. But that s not true is it,
because when it is that far away it will be 1/4 as bright. I pondered
that for a while and dug out my eyepiece case - might as well observe
mars while it is close.

Stupid high power:

I played with a 5 and a 7 mm EP in a 2x barlow. The planet was big
and the image was bright enough to tolerate either a light blue or a
red filter. View was reasonable with the 7 mm at 2x, but few bits of
clear seeing occured. The 5 mm in the 2 x was less sharp but it
was "fun" to see Mars look that big. The major dark areas were seen,
but seldom were the fine details glimpsed.

I went back to observing with the 5mm with a red filter and no
barlow. The "T" was again seen. But it is too wide in the EP for
a "T". It more closely resembles AOL's running man logo with the back
arm a little dim and the head a little dim. And he's reotated about
45 degres off of vertical. Ablove him during moments of good seeing,
3 pale orange ovals were glimpsed. Occasionally focal darker areas
would appear along th course of his back leg and body. More seldom
tiny darker areas were seen over the lighter colored (red because of
the filter) areas of the planet. This appeared during the few
fleeting moments of great seeing.

I wondered what other filters do I own ... with the OIII the pole
was enhanced, the planet took on a milky white/bluegreen color
superimposed on a pink orange planet. Visualization of the dark areas
was not improved ... with the UHC filter the light areas of the
planet appeared red, the pole was enhanced, the dark ares were seen
but not as well as with the red filter ... the deep sky was similar
with the lighter areas of the planet appearing red. The pole was
enhanced. Contrast with the dark areas was better with the red
filter ... my neutral density filter looked to have a green tint and
it also reddened the light areas but did not do a great bit for the
dark areas.

I put the foom EP back in. I lowered the power and tried to descern
as much of the detail that I'd seen in the 5mm as possible. Then I'd
lower the power again and repeat. The smaller features and fine
detail are lost as the image gets smaller.

Jeff or Larry, if you are "up for it" I wouldn't mind trying to
image Mars again. Also it might be fun to try to view it with
binoviewers in the C14.