Ok, I saw mars tonight. I must have been using the 25mm the other night a long with the 2.8 barlow. Tonight I checked it with a 10mm and 2.8 barlow and it was still a small dot. It was bigger, and it was for sure mars because a star would not appear that big, but it was still very small.

Now, from what you guys have said, Mars is 1/113 of the size of the moon with the naked eye right? So if I used a magnification of 113 I would see in my scope, mars as the size of the moon I see with the naked eye?

That would mean mars would be pretty big in my scope, which it is not even with the 10mm and 2.8 barlow.

I could tell it was a disc and a planet, I could even see a slightly off color band on it. But basically what I saw was a yellow fuzzy ball that was about 1/10th the size of the moon I can see with the naked eye.

Mars did not take up all of my FOV or even remotely close to it even with the 10mm and 2.8 barlow. So this leads me to think I must be doing something else wrong.

When I look at the moon I am simply amazed at the detail I can see, It is almost like I am standing on the surface. I can see shadows of mountains and every crater in great detail. But when I look at Mars I see a tiny yellow dot with practically no detail at all.

The detail part I am not worried about, it may be because of collimation or a nearly full moon or atmospheric conditions or who knows, but I would at least like to see a Big disk in my FOV, even if it is blurry.

You say the magnification I am using is 300+X so I should see mars taking up my full FOV right? Or at least close to it, not a small yellow dot.

Thanks for the help guys, I hope I can get this sorted out. Or do i need to buy a higher magnification lens?