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The radio said it would be close enough to Earth to see it with the naked eye. Me and the yard guy at work *think* we saw it... but the radio said it would be in the southeast and what we saw was in the southwest.... It looked like a bright orange/red star. Would Mars be shining like a star!?!?!? :cool:
Maybe is was Mars that you saw. Our newspaper here recommends that tonight is better to view it (not sure why), but they described it as a yellow/red colour......I'll let you know if I see it tonight.
you can plainly see it really good now, at least by the star thingy im looking at. :eek:
It just looks like a bright star..doesn't it? I've seen it or some other planet before and thats all it was..
uhh i think i saw it, if it was Mars then it just looked like a bright orange star :)
mum and i were going to go to the observitory *ack i know that is not the correct spelling:o *
but we ran out of time *oh well*
Although early this morning was supposed to be the best "day" for viewing here, though I couldn't see it all! They said best viewing time would be 5:58 am. Well, the sun's up then!! I couldn't see a thing though it was a bit hazy. BUT, the other night, when I went out with Star to pee (her, not me:D) I just happened to look up as the sky was so clear, the stars were SO bright and there in the southeast was Mars! I often see Venus, but this looked nothing like it, or any star! It was this huge, red ball; no mistaking it! I grabbed my binoculars but it doesn't have an infinity setting so they were of no help. I have a great telescope, but I have yet to set it up here in Mass. It's pretty involved, having to be aligned with the north star and such and a little complicated; didn't get to it in time:(. They say you can see the craters with good binoculars though! I find astronomy so fascinating! It was really neat to see!
Mars has been getting brighter for months. In the northern hemisphere it's now the brightest star or planet in the sky. If you think you have seen it recently then you have seen it. To me, near city lights, it looks like a somewhat pale orange star.
Paul
Last night, the sky was all clear over here, except for one very bright shining star. I'm pretty sure it was Mars. It was the only star in the sky yesterday night.
We're very lucky, to be able to see it though. Since this only happens every 60000 years I think.:p
Cool pictures taken by the Hubble Telescope
Here
Do you remember doing something silly in high school? You would get a group of friends to look up into the sky at something imaginary. The idea was to see how many people you could get to look up in the sky too. Then you would laugh and laugh.
Well, last night I went outside at around 11 PM when they said Mars would be very visible in Los Angeles. I was standing there looking up and someone walked by the front of my house. Sure enough - up he looked too! But he didn't look long - and glanced at me as though I was crazy.
Logan, thanks for that link.
It all depends on what time you saw it. It rises in the Southeast around 7:00 or 8:00 pm your time, and sets in the Southwest sometime in the morning. Terry and I saw it two weeks ago when we went camping. It does shine like a star, but the way you can tell it's Mars and not just a star is because it's bright, and it flickers red, orangey in color where a star is just white. It was really cool. All we had were binoculars so we really didn't get a good look at it, but it was still cool.
Right now, when it's at it's closest it would still take a human 7 - 8 months to get there. The last time it was this close was in 57,000 something BC!!!! They said it would be just a little closer than this in 2200 something, just a mere 200 years from now rather than another 60,000 - I found that interesting.
Seeing mars like this was cool, but my favorite was last year when there were 7 planets lined up in a row at one point - and you could see them all. Now that was cool! :D
Gini,Quote:
Originally posted by gini
Do you remember doing something silly in high school? You would get a group of friends to look up into the sky at something imaginary. The idea was to see how many people you could get to look up in the sky too. Then you would laugh and laugh.
Well, last night I went outside at around 11 PM when they said Mars would be very visible in Los Angeles. I was standing there looking up and someone walked by the front of my house. Sure enough - up he looked too! But he didn't look long - and glanced at me as though I was crazy.
Logan, thanks for that link.
What's a Pet Talker?? lololol
I think the neighborhoood folks are starting to notice that the lady 'up the street' has been acting strangely in the last few months....
not gonna mention 'purple furry monkeys'....
;)
Mars will be visible for another 6 weeks, the reason that it twinkles like a star is because of the atmosphere!!
Once you see it try and follow it's progress thru out the next month of so!!!
We saw it last night around 1 a.m.! :D Then the storm clouds rolled in. :(
I love astronomy. :D
Yep, I saw Mars too. I've seen it several times. I think it is so neat now. I wish we could alway see it so well. It's bigger than a normal star. Most starts look about the size of a pencil eraser. Mars looks about the size of a golf ball. Did anyone (else) wave at the Martins?:eek: :D
Thanks for the link Logan!!:D
*lol*Quote:
originally posted by tatsxxx11
when I went out with Star to pee (her, not me:D)
thanks everyone for the info... I am pretty sure it was mars we saw then... I didn't know it would shine like a star....
Now I just need to find someone with a telescope.. so I can see it better....
astronomy is cool... it makes you feel so small though..;) :eek:
L M A O!Quote:
Originally posted by RICHARD
Gini,
What's a Pet Talker?? lololol
I think the neighborhoood folks are starting to notice that the lady 'up the street' has been acting strangely in the last few months....
not gonna mention 'purple furry monkeys'....
;)
I think I saw it. I looked out the window last night, and saw a big and bright red/orangish star looking thing in the sky. I know it was Mars, just wish my telescope wasn't broken so I could have a better view. Kids really do have to touch everything when they come to our house. If it wasn't for those horrible kids, I would still have my belove telescope, but now, it rests in peace. :(
Mars has been very bright all month. The way to know it's Mars is it is red/orange. Planets in general don't "twinkle" like stars, their light is more steady (although they can appear to twinkle because of atmospheric conditions). Mars is large right now, I have heard some people describe it a looking like an airplane coming in to land.
Other planets are visible to the naked eye at times, too, depending on where it is in the sky. I have been able to spot Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, and Venus without a telescope or binoculars. Mercury is trickier since it is so close to the Sun, but it is possible.
You don't necessarily need a telescope, a good pair of binoculars is probably easier for a beginner.
I love astronomy too. I'm very curious about it:p
That night during the blackout, we were all outside just looking at the beautiful stars:) That was so much fun, I wish it happened again;)We saw shooting stars and the big dipper:D
The area around me is too metro-Atlanta/city. I cannot see stars most nights.
Hi, mew-
MARS would be that round, red circle in the sky -- and MARS does not twinkle because MARS is a planet, not a star. Stars "twinkle".
Find MARS tonight: go outside just as dusk turns to night sky. Right now we are in the new moon phase (sliver of a moon) so it is the best time to see MARS. Look up to the EAST (where the sun rises everyday) and you will see the red ball in the sky.
Go to website http://www.space.com/spacewatch/where_is_mars.html which has a map of where MARS is located. We can see Mars many, many nights (and Venus, Jupiter, etc) with the naked eye. Just need to know it rises in the East & sets in the West as does the Moon & Sun and everything in the sky.
Hope there are no clouds in the sky tonight where you live...Imagine, no human eyes from the time of Genesis in the Bible to 2003 have seen Mars this close to Earth. We are the lucky ones to see it and the next ones will be about 50,000 years from now.
My KatMa's human son is an Astro-Physicist (he is my purrson brother) -- and I'm the furkid, Queen Sasha, mew-mew.
My dad and I set up the telescope the other night and checked it out. It was pretty cool. :) (I wish we could be back in Yellowstone or anywhere else with clearer skies and less "light pollution") I got some horrible (really, HORRIBLE) photos of it. Here's the only one that I believe is *barely* post-worthy:
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/...4/fb3c36c6.jpg
Mars in all its glory :)
We are getting a great view in the southern hemisphere too!
Wow, I have been noticing Mars for the last two weeks now, glowing pale orange over the night sky. A couple of years back, in 1999, it was also big and bright. It is really hard to miss it at the moment and the papers and TV news have spread the word so that idiots with camcorders don't film the strange orange UFO in the sky or ring the police in hysterics! :D
We also get good views of Jupiter and Venus from time to time. Venus is big and bright during our summer time!
Last Wednesday I stood in line for over an hour to see Mars through the college's observatory telescope. We ended up not getting to go into the observatory at all (only the first 200 were allowed in) but there were 3 almost equally powerful telescopes set up on the grass outside the observatory. I looked at Mars through one and could see some shadows -- could have been craters? or gases?-- it was a neat experience. :D We could see it with our "undressed" eye too as we were waiting in line. :)