Time Well Wasted...

This post is a little overdue, but thought it deserved mentioning.

Last week I took my scope out and got a first glimpse of the red planet; Mars. I must admit it was a little disappointing in comparison to what I was expecting. At least with Jupiter I could see 4 moons and just make out some small colouring on the disc itself.

Under the most powerful eyepieces I have, Mars appeared to be nothing more than an orange-red star, I couldn't make out anything other than the colour, I was hoping to see enough to work out where the polar caps were, but no chance.

Like a say, a little disappointing but I can't expect much with my equipment, maybe if I had spent £2000 and not £200 I'd be telling a different story. But anyway, its nice to look out each night and think about what is up there

As the earth is in a faster orbit, after this month we're rapidly overtaking Mars, therefore we will be getting further and further away (hence Mars appearing smaller) until we "lap" it in about 2 years time from now. Hopefully by then I'll be in a better position for oberserving