am i seeing mars.

[casfan]

Just been out in the garden with my rubbish 10x25 bins while im waiting for my others, took my laptop out so i could use stellarium. Having a bit of trouble finding my way around, but will i be seeing mars with the naked eye or im i confusing ti with either capella aldebaran or betelgeuse? i can see the little plough but that to me is further to my right than it should be .

The more i was out side the more stars appeared to me. sounds silly but wow you dont notice it till you really look

[Kai]

If you look almost overhead towards the east you will see a bright orange "star" this is mars

Its brighter than almost anything else out there at the moment

[radioactive]

like Kia says you will find Mars more or less overhead its about the most prominant thing you can see as it become dusk naked eye easy!

[casfan]

Thank you, i was right yey spotted my first planet can see it bettr with my eyes then the bins im using though. still exciting stuff.

Whats the chances of seeing saturn with naked eye tonight?

[AlexG]

Hi Casfan

Let's see if we can prove your binoculars aren't rubbishy!

If you stand looking straight to the south, then you turn your head up and to the left you should see Mars. It should seem an orangey colour.

If you look below it at the moment you will see ANOTHER orangey dot, this is Betelgeuse, a star, part of Orion. Look to the right of that and you will see three stars in an almost vertical line - that's Orion's belt.

Use your binoculars to look to bottom star in that line, then move to the right and you should find another line of stars - one of them should look like two stars together with a sort of tissuey, smudge around them.

If you can see that you are looking at the Orion Nebula M42 - the light reaching you started off in about 500 ad and has been travelling ever since!

AG

[casfan]

cheers AlexG

did what you said saw betelgeuse then saw the belt took a bit of time for the night vision to kick in to see the other line of stars, then i saw what you said, but not very clear, hopefully when i get my 10x25 this will show that smudge better. then my neighbour came out giving me a funny look.

[AlexG]

Congratulations you just saw your first deep sky object.

Now there is a great yellow moon coming up in the east to look at.

Amazing how neighbours see binoculars and immediately imagine you want to look at them eating their dinner, isn't it?

AG

[casfan]

Thank you.

Yeah and his security light came on too, spoiling it all. yeah he didnt say anything but it felt a bit weird

[Kai]

Saturn is going to be easy.

It is the bright "star" just below and to the left of the Moon.