Viewing Mars

[Madelinew]

Got a lovely view of Mars about 8pm yesterday. I'm quite chuffed that I spotted it as I was driving home and knew instantly that it was a planet rather than a star. I soon had my scope trained on it once I was home which is giving me good practice at pinpointing specific spots in the sky.

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?

[Amanda1979]

My friend has a small but fat telescope which is run by electric and you can add location codes etc to it. Its not cheap though but you can run it of a lap top, sorry I can't remember what make or name of it.

[thwick in 'ead]

Meade ETX series.

Madelinew, why not buy one of the astonomical programs for your PC, such as Red Shift. These give you a 'real time' map of the sky. Very useful.

[Madelinew]

I've got a freebie already on my pc and it is endlessly useful. It's called Stellarium but I can't remember where I got it from now.

As for the gadget - I have no intention of buying one. I just wondered if anyone else had heard of it.

And the pc is all very well if I am only outside my house

I have other reference stuff but I'm not at the stage of taking all my gear out anywhere else other than home yet.

[carlos_dfc]

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

[Madelinew]

I've just driven the long way home from MacDonalds via the downs where I pulled over and made the kids freeze for half an hour as we saw how many satellites we could spot (2), and I pointed out Mars to them. Could just about see the band of the milky way as well and as a bonus we spotted at least 2 shooting stars. All in all, they were suitably impressed! Perhaps my daughter might use slightly more suitable shoes next time - trod in a puddle in her sandals and not too impressed about that one!

[thwick in 'ead]

Originally Posted by Madelinew

I've just driven the long way home from MacDonalds

MacDonalds? Shame on you!!!!!!!!!!!

[Garden Carpet]

Originally Posted by thwick in 'ead

MacDonalds? Shame on you!!!!!!!!!!!

hey thwick in 'ead, Madelinew more than made up for taking them to McDonalds by taking them to look at the stars. Not everyone hates McDonalds (they do a wonderful thick milkshake). Shame on you for knocking her!

jaki

[agrumpycow]

Originally Posted by Garden Carpet

hey thwick in 'ead, Madelinew more than made up for taking them to McDonalds by taking them to look at the stars. Not everyone hates McDonalds (they do a wonderful thick milkshake). Shame on you for knocking her!

jaki

Well said Jaki! I too think thwick in 'ead is being a bit mean!
I wish I was able to see more stars, either cloud or light pollution here

[Herptastic]

Where in the sky should we be looking to see Mars (N,E,S,W)???

Would love to see it through a telescope and get some pictures

[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!