Viewing Mars

[carlos_dfc]

Look generally to the East Herp.
It's the brightest thing there, and a distinctive reddish orange colour

Mars currently rises just before 5pm, to the North of due-East - then climbs as it heads across due-East (8:30pm-ish, about 30° altitude) then even higher towards the South-East.
It is South-East, about 50° or 60° high, at around 11pm.
Then sweeps across the South, and starts dropping as it heads towards the South-West in the wee-small hours.

Mars is currently in Gemini - and if you are intending to have a peek with a telescope - a couple of other interesting objects in Gemini, you may as well take a look while you have the scope out
Castor - is a double star - separation about 3 arcsec, so seeing if you can 'split' it, and see both stars seperately, VERY close together at high power - is a good test of the optics in a small scope.
M35 - the open cluster, to the right of mars (see chart below) consists of over 200 stars, of which, a decent amateur scope can pick out about half of them (in the hands of an experienced observer) Even a casual observer will see many, many stars clustered together.
Also - if you look carefully, you might be able to see a smaller cluster, ngc2158, nestled up close to m35 - and if you look even more carefully, you might just be able to spot the dimmer open cluster IC2157 not far away.
(How can you tell that my speciality is observing open clusters? - LOL)

I've notated a little chart to show where these objects are in relation to Mars and the Gemini constellation.

[Herptastic]

Thanks for that Carlos...... Gonna have a look in a bit, looking forward to it actually

[Herptastic]

Typical.... Get the scope out, and just as i start to line it up the cloud roles in.
Give it a couple of hours and see how it looks then.

[vole-woman]

I've noticed a brighter-than-your-average 'star' lately, with an orange cast to it, a little way to the left of Orion's head (he's lying down at the moment). Is this Mars? Or something else?

[NickCantle]

I'm curious about that too VW, I think it could be Mars. Let's wait for a pro

Nick

[The Black Rabbit]

Well I'm hardly a pro.... but yes.... thats Mars. (In the East(ish) in the evening and west int' marnin').

Betelgeuse (don't say that three times!) is the twinkly orangey star below and to the left of Orion's "head" and quite a bit further to the left is the much brighter, orange Mars.
Hope that helps.
Doug

[vole-woman]

That's the one. Many thanks!