Jan. 29 - Mars Close Approach

Wavey

Afternoon all,

Does anybody have any idea what time of the night will offer the best views of Mars this weekend?

I am one of the Lidl telescope noobs.

Thanks,

Wavey

Calibos

Any night. Technically its closest on the 29th but noticable differances in size in the eyepiece are only apparent on the scale of weeks if not months.

ie. it looked as big in the eyepiece a month ago as it will in a months time.
It'll be 14.9 arcseconds across on the 29th whereas the week before it was 14.85 and a week hence it'll be getting smaller again and back to 14.85 etc. One only starts to notice difference in size when one is talking changes of 2 or 3 arcseconds and that kind of size change happens gradually over weeks and months.

So don't sweat it if its cloudy this weekend or you are too tired to observe. It'll still look the same for another month or two.

Hauk

Yep, the difference in magnitude is minimal to the smaller scopes, and you have plenty of time to view the planet over the weeks.

I hope it's clear on Friday \o/

Duiske

Hauk wrote: »

I hope it's clear on Friday \o/

Just to add a little interest to this, the moon is at perigee tomorrow night as well. For those hoping to view mars tomorrow night, it will not be hard to spot. It will be just to the left of the largest, brightest full moon of the year.

Savage Cabbage

great thanks for that. Im new to this and didnt really want to ask how to find Mars. With that in mind anyone know of any good website or book that teaches you how to navigate the sky for absolute beginners?

Sykk

Your first step would be to download Stellarium. It shows you where everything is and where it's going to be.

-Nigel

Duiske

Sykk is spot on. One of the most useful free programs on the net. You can download it here. By the way, for those who already have stellarium, theres a new version being released today on the above site.

The Stellarium team are delighted to announce the release of Stellarium 0.10.3.

This release brings some exciting new features. Stellarium now ships with plug-ins for predicting the positions of artificial satellites in Earth orbit, improved telescope control features, telescope eyepiece simulation (ocular) and more. Plug-ins can be enabled using the new plug-ins tab in the configuration dialog.

We also have a new sky culture - Aztec, updated translations and an in-program script editor.

djhaxman

Sykk wrote: »

Your first step would be to download Stellarium. It shows you where everything is and where it's going to be.

-Nigel

Yes, much better than the software that came with the LIDL telescopes. Easier to use.

Conor108

Is that Mars to the left of the Moon now?

Mental_Legend

Will Mars be visible tonight with the naked eye? And if so, how large should it appear? I see what seems like a star just to the left of the moon and I don't know if it might be Mars or not.

jimbis

Yup! thats Mars you can see to the left of the Moon!;)

lord lucan

Mars is lovely and clear tonight,even with the naked eye. The wife thought i was pulling her leg when i pointed it out to her!:D

Wavey

Thanks for the replies lads.
Had two clear nights over the weekend.
Crap viewing tonight though.
Only got a 26mm eyepeice with the scope so Mars was bright but small.
Got a good deal on a meade 4000 eyepiece set on ebay which arrived today.

Stellarium is a very nice piece of software. Although it keeps crashing out on my pc.

Wavey.