The Martian's Page

When I wrote this, Mars was near it's best time for viewing from Earth. There is a good amount of detail on Mar's surface that can be seen in a 6" or larger telescope. However, I have seen very little that would lead me to the wild specualations of Martian Canals! Mars is very difficult to photograph, due to it's small size. I do not yet have any good photos showing the detail that can be seen with your eye at the eyepiece of the telescope, so I have simulated how it looks with the above photo from NASA. When I get my own photo that I'm proud of, it will go here.

Above is a sample of what kind of detail and size that can be seen in my scopes. To see this well, you need a night of good seeing with about 300x of magnification. Becuase of it's small size (Mars is about 2/3rds the size of Earth), Mars appears about 1/2 the size of Jupiter, even though it is much closer to us.