Hello all, I think I'm currently viewing Mars(not an expert!) and can see a dark disk which may be one of the two satelites that Mars has. I was wondering if anyone in the UK can actually confirm this, or maybe explain what I might be seeing =) Thanks Dave
Quick math: Phobos =22.2km mars=6794km So Phobos should have to look more then 300 times smaller. So it's unlickly you saw that. But if it's a good telescope then you may have seen jupiter and 1 of it's 4 moons in transit.
Hey Thanks for the reply. It's only a Nexstar 80GT, and I was only switching between the 25mm and 10mm eyepieces that came with the scope. The thing is... the UK media have been talking about Mars being closer to Earth then usual, and with the naked eye I say a extraordinary star like object in the sky, basically it was bigger then anything else in the sky and brightly coloured, I automatically assumed it was Mars. I focused in and it looked like a blown up version of what the moon looks like to the naked eye. It was quite a interesting night viewing. Thanks again. Dave
Actually here in Melbourne Australia the night sky has two very bright objects. I assume they are mars [west] and venus [east]but this is with no real insight and just speculation. [not being an astonomer or even owning a telescope] The thing is in the 20 odd years I have been looking at the night sky I have never seen objects this bright before. any one have any insight into this?
Dave, First off, Demos and Phobos. They are not visible to commonly availably amatuer telescopes. IIRC, you need something like a minimum 16" aperature just to see them as starlike points of light. Possibly even more, I'm going by memory. You say under magnification it had a moonlike apearance. Do you mean a cresant shape? If so it is safe to say that you were looking at Venus. To the naked eye it should be a very bright, pure white star. Mars during close approach can be quite bright. To the unaided eye it will look like one of the half dozen or so brightest stars, and have a distinct orange color. If you know the star Aldebaron, Mars has nearly the same color, and can be somewhat brighter. One other thing, if a Shmidt-Cassagrain is out of focus, there will be a dark spot in the center of the field of veiw. It is the shadow of the secondary mirror.
