--------------------------------------- While camping at Charleston Lake we had a couple of nice clear nights and quite steady skies. I was able to do some observing, and I also snapped a few images of Mars through the scope. This is the first time the seeing was good enough to allow f/20 imaging. The Southern Polar Cap is clearly visible, as well as numerous surface features. The long dark prominent area near centre is Sinus Meridiani. The thin Martian atmosphere is also evident on the left hand side where the sun is reflecting off it in an arc. --------------------------------------- Image Details: July 29 2003 3:15am EST (UT-4) Charleston Lake Prov Pk Ontario Canada 30 frames per sec, 3120 frames captured. 295 of the sharpest frames were extracted then averaged. Hardware: Celestron Ultima2000 8 SCT at f/20 Murnaghan Flip-Mirror Celestron Ultima 2X Apo-Barlow Toucam Pro Webcam Sirius NIR-1 filter Software: K3CCDTools, Registax, Picture Window Pro --------------------------------------- Len Benschop