Yah, I have aligned the finder scope as well as I can. If I line it up with the moon then put in 25m lens with the 2.8x barlow and I can still see the moon, so I assumed it is aligned pretty well. At least well enough that I wouldn’t be looking way over at Betelgeuse when I am aiming it mars heh.

BUT, I suppose it is possible I was off enough to be peering at some distant star that is right next to mars that I couldn’t see with the naked eye or the finder scope.

I will have to check again once the sky’s clear up and make sure I wasn't just off by a hair and missing mars all together.

Thanks for the help guys.