Trees in my backyard can make positioning for objects quite a task. As was the case with Mars and Regulus on this night. Just above the mountains to the East lied the stellar pair who only had about 30 minutes of visibility left for the night.
Bringing out the scope, Lauren and I placed it on the edge of my neighbors yard. Right at that moment a light came on in their house followed by a flood light in the front yard. I (always being the calm and collected one of the relationship) started to freak out and was motioning and mouthing quietly for Lauren to quickly help me move the telescope across the road (you would have thought they had run out with a shot gun and guard dogs).
After moving the scope back to the edge of another neighbors yard, the eyepiece (to my surprise) revealed Mars and Regulus just barely in the field of view (FOV) of my 25mm plossl. The pair appeared slightly distorted, being on the extreme edge of the FOV, but the white/blue glow of Regulus contrasted sharply with the red glow of Mars. With the FOV of my eyepiece being 1.08 degrees, Mars and Regulus must have been exactly 1 degree from each other at midnight.
Mars and Regulus at Midnight, June 6th
Star Log: Midnight, June 6, 2010
Late Night Astronomy 
It was a sight!! Like 2 bright headlights One orange the other Blue/White.
The 38mm will help a lot. It showed really good in 24mm Stratus also. I got a chance to really look through the 38mm last night. It does show some distortions on the very outside… the stars can look like dashes. I found that focusing for the outside of the FOV helped out a lot. The focus for that eyepiece is a lot more forgiving, you don’t have to fuss with it to get a focused view like a 5mm or 9mm. It is not a deal breaker by any means as I didn’t even notice it until really scrutinizing.
Yeah, the 38mm is sounding better and better! I’m sure the stars on the outer edges are no problem at all during viewing. I had read where a few people on Cloudy Nights were complaining about star distortion on the edges, but some people can be overly critical and different telescopes will show different results (ours seems to yield very favorable views through it). I’m glad it is working out well for you and I’ll be sure to post an update when I purchase mine.