How to View Mars

Remember that Mars is named for the Roman god of war because of its red color. It is the fourth planet in our solar system from the sun. Mars has two small moons, Phobos and Deimos, that are not perfectly round as our moon is. It is sometimes referred to as a??The Red Planeta?? as it appears to the naked eye as a bright, slightly reddish star. It takes 687 days to rotate around the sun and one day on Mars would be 24 hours and 37 minutes long.

View Mars easily through a *telescope. What you see will change drastically depending on where it is in its orbit. When Mars is closer to the earth, (this is called opposition) more detail can be seen Even a small telescope will show Mars as a bright reddish disk with a complex pattern of dark areas and large, mottled white expanses that are polar ice caps.

Check out the rest of the surface details. Marsa?? other surface features include volcanoes, lava plains, enormous craters and huge canyons along regions around the equator, some of which you will be able to see when Mars is close to earth. Most of the surface of Mars, however, will look like a vast desert that is a dull reddish or orange color.

See a little wider view of Mars with *binoculars which can enhance vision in ways a telescope cannot. Some people see from 25a??40% better than they can with a telescope when viewing objects that are not very bright. Binoculars are also easier to move around with, require no setting up, and can view a larger area of the sky at once.

See the surface configurations. Mars also has a large network of what looks like dry river beds, which suggests that water once flowed on Marsa?? surface. Although no water is visible now, the presence of the ice caps shows that Mars has a great deal of frozen water. There are often very, high winds on Mars, which keeps its surface changing.

Look for Mars at its best when ita??s opposite the sun. Ita??s twice as bright as the brightest star, Sirius, at that time. Mars has a diameter of 4,200 mi, a little over half of the size of the earth. Mars has an extreme temperature range between day and night (around 80°F (27°C) at noon to a??100°F (a??73°C) at night.

Stargaze at a time of optimum visibility. The eartha??s atmosphere can block out a good view of anything celestial. Sometimes these atmospheric changes are hard to spot because they are happening beyond our line of vision. You can test the skies with this rule of thumb: If the stars seem to be twinkling or blinking, the eartha??s atmosphere is turbulent and things will look too fuzzy to see anything. Sometimes when the skies appear hazy to the naked eye, the skies are really more tranquil and visibility is actually enhanced.

Our planets, once thought to be gods and goddesses over the earth, were also believed to be inhabited by strange life forms. Now that we know so much more about them, we can enjoy the fascinating and distinctive characteristics of each. Stargazing is an ancient pastime and source of scientific study. Begin your journey to the stars alone or as a family or group in a planetarium or with a telescope or pair of binoculars right in your own backyard. Ita??s a wonderful way to explore our larger environment and see otherworldly places for free.