Mars?
 

Approximately 5 hours left. Anyone going to go watch? Or are you watching now?

Just went and saw it.
Nobody else?

.. are you talking about the planet Mars?

Saw it, but to the naked eye, didn't seem any bigger than it has been all week - with a 50x binocular, however, it was pretty cool... the white icecaps stuck out a little.

Yes, the planet. This morning at 2:51 pacific time it was the closest to earth It's been in almost 60000 years.

It'll still be pretty close for about 4 weeks, afaik. That should give you enough time to harvest a paycheck or two, buy a nice telescope, and have a good look at it... (kinda joking)

Sombody take a picture please

I tried, but it was really hard. The camera turned its flash on because it was dark outside, so I don't think anything came out.

And it's not the same unless you see it at the exact minute it's closest. Not because it's really that much different, but just because.

I got it locked in my scope a few times but it's a small refractor, it just doesn't have enough power, even with a 6mm eyepiece and 2x barlow.

British astronomers, using the UK Infra-Red Telescope in Hawaii recently took the clearest photo ever from the surface of Earth. You can read the story here.

The Hubble Space Telescope took a series of photos of Mars during yesterday's opposition, that you can see here (the story is here). Additional information about the opposition event can be found on the JPL Mars website.

-dave

There was a star party up here at Michigan Tech and about 300 people showed up to look through some hobby and professional scopes. We had 2 8" scopes and a bunch of smaller ones. With the 8" scope you could see the reflection off the icecap of mars. Pretty neat. I also didn't have to wait in line as my room mate set them up and helped run the whole thing. Its cool that so many people are into this

I've looked at Mars almost every night all summer long...I can see it from my front porch...

I missed it...:(