Mars Mars and Mars again....plus Ladder Astronomy

"It was a most clear and frosty night, enough to make Mark haul out the telescope... and it was so worth it. He saw the dales and vales and snow caps of Mars..... " From the journal of Mrs Pembs 25th January 2010I make no apology for droning on about Mars...now is the time to drag out those telescopes and feast your eyes on the wonderful world we call Mars...Observing Mars has dominated all my astronomy spare time of late, and for good reason.The planet Mars is currently at opposition, and as such it will allow us our best chance of viewing Mars for the next 40 or so days...after that time...as far as good viewing is concerned, Mars and our planet Earth say goodbye to each other for another 2 years .My attempts at photography: What can I say !!!!!As you can see from these photos, my Martian photography skills leave a lot to be desired... :0)I tried to connect our Nikon D50 via a x3 Barlow to the eyepiece holder of the Tal.....It didn't take me long to realise why so many people use webcams and Registax software...No way was I going to capture a Martian photo...Time to ...