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Originally Posted by Madelinew  BTW has anyone else heard about a gadget that operates by GPS which you point at the sky and identifies constellations along with giving various details about them? |
Yep - Meade and Celestron both produce such a gadget...
Celestron 'Skyscout', and Meade 'Mysky' - both around £300
And Mars....
yes - I've been viewing it with telescopes for few months now as it approaches 'opposition'.
Mars comes to oposition once every 2 and a bit years - next time is just before Christmas - but is great to view through telescopes for a few months either side of that.
At 'opposition' a planet is in a straight line with the Sun and Earth, which means we are at the closest point to it on our orbit, which basically means it appears at it's biggest in a telescope (and therefore, the best time to view it)
Mars is currently about 3 times as big (around 16 arcseconds angular diameter) when seen through a telescope - as it usually is (normally around 4 to 6 arcseconds)
I've been watching it steadily grow - and gradually more and more detail has been visible - since early October, when it was around 10 arcsec diameter.
And it's clear again tonight, so I'll be out viewing it (among other things) again
