Have you seen the planet Mars?

[catmandu57]

It's closer to the earth than it has been in 58,000 years. I stepped out the front door to let a cat in at 5:30 this morning and it was so close it looked unreal.
I don't know how long it stays this way, and I'm sure it can be seen at different times, but, before sunrise if you look to the west southwest, you can see a large red ball hanging in the sky.
If you have a telescope or binoculors it'd be really cool, do yourself a favor and look at this.

[witchbitch]

1. I saw it also!

It was a marvelous sight! Too bad my telescope is at my sister's house and I'm still waiting on my new binoculars. :-(

[Birthmark]

2. Over the next couple of weeks

...Mars will rise roughly at sunset and will be visible all night. I'm inviting my neighbors to come to my house Friday night and check out Mars through my telescope. Should be fun. If you can get to a telescope over the next couple of weeks, do so!

[CO Liberal]

3. Yes, I Have!!! Have YOU Seen Uranus?????

:-)

[bahrbearian]

4. Not since I quit practicing Yoga

[goobergunch]

9. I saw Uranus through a 61-inch telescope once...

I saw Mars through it too.

[elfin]

5. YES!

Fantastic. Supposedly the best on the 27th. But look now and the next days in case it is cloudy the 27th in your area. You cannot miss it in the sky. Not just another light - definitely different.

[Fenris]

6. No. Did you lose it?

:hi: Sorry, I had to.

[Dookus]

7. I spent...

saturday FINALLY learning how to use my rather-nice telescope and autostar controller. Then the fog came in.... sigh.

Yesterday... back came the fog.

I'm hoping tonight will be clear.

I saw Mars the other night with the naked eye, but I wanna look up close.

[goobergunch]

8. Mars is a lot smaller than you expect it to be...

just consider yourself warned.

What kind of telescope is it? I haven't had a chance to see Mars yet, but I was finally able to take my 10-inch Dob out last week and check out M51, M53, and Albireo. It was nice to finally take it out after it had been sitting in the basement gathering dust for three months...B-)

If you're interested, Mars is in Aquarius in the southern part of the sky.

[Dookus]

11. it's...

a Meade ETX 125EC

Yes, planets are small.... I've managed to find Jupiter and Saturn with it manually, but I was stumped by the Autostar controller. The manual was apparently written in !xhosa and then translated to English via Finnish and Korean.

But with the help of the internet and my smarter-than-me boyfriend, we got most of it figured out. I think. I need a clear night to find out.

[NYC]

10. I think I saw it Thursday night/Friday morning.

It was to the southwest, and was slightly west of the full moon (nearly full, waning now) that arrived slightly before 5 a.m.

It looked large, and almost square. The sky had been mostly opaque for the whole night. That was the night of the blackout, and it was an almost foggy looking sky. Too opaque to see any other stars during that night.

[TEXASYANKEE]

12. It's amazing.

I only wish I had a better telescope! But that being said, it is awesome to look at even with just the naked eye.

[denverbill]

13. Yep. Last week.

It was OK. I've got a 3 inch scope, and was able to see the polar cap and dark areas. I need to get out again.

[samsingh]

14. yes, last week

during the blackout.

it was beautiful and red. near the moon.

[TXlib]

15. I went to a Star Party

with the Houston Astronomical Society on Saturday.

I brought my little 4.5" Astroscan, and was between one guy with a 10" dob, and another with an 18" computer-controlled Meade monster. I leaned over to the guy with the 10" dob and asked, "Do you think he's compensating for something?"

Replied the 10" dob guy, "Yeah. The Earth's rotation."

It was a lot of fun. A 4.5" Astroscan may not be the ideal instrument to see Mars clearly, but it did a remarkable job of finding various open and globular clusters, and some diffuse nebulae.

Through my scope, the Ring Nebula was just a hazy dot. Through the 18" monster next to me, the Ring Nebula was quite clear.

[Dookus]

16. sooooo cool

I REALLY hope it's clear tonight. I'm so jazzed to finally use my damned telescope properly.