Don't know if you've been watching the moon and Mars tonight...

[Whoa_Nelly]

Absolute perfection!

Mars is right under the moon
***beautiful***

[Crazy Guggenheim]

1. I can't see it from where I am. But it looks good!!

[Whoa_Nelly]

2. It is! Have been outside checking it out all evening!

I love the math of the skies :)

[IChing]

3. I saw it, mars leaves it retrograde position tonight. (good news)

Mars in retrograde sense Oct. 1
now watch it move back
under the moon's emotions


Mars turns retrograde only once every two years and two months

However, during the cycle, the planet's energy is most powerful (and more likely to generate critical events of universal importance) when the planet makes a station, appearing motionless in the sky. These stationary periods occur at the beginning of the cycle (when the planet first halts as it prepares to move backwards) and midway through the cycle when the retrograde planet slows to a stop before moving forward again.

Mars retrograde gives rise to irrational action; introspection; depression and self-assessment; relationship conflicts; major rethinks and reorientation of current projects are also often required.

When Mars is retrograde, everyone's thought patterns are more introspective and we tend to think about issues and concerns which relate to the sign involved. With Mars retrograde in Taurus, people with Sun or Moon in Taurus, or Taurus rising, will be especially prone to such introspection. There is little choice but to reconsider personal views and opinions about life, for it presents an opportunity to gain insight into unconscious motivations.

Happy Holidays

[IChing]

4. The moon and mars are in an rare position tonight (rare in science also)

usually we see venus next to the moon in viewing.
It was astounding, thanks for pointing it out.
Just went out and saw the same thing.

[Whoa_Nelly]

6. Mmmm...can feel the change, IChing!

Hey! Hope your home is in better balance now!

[IChing]

8. Strange but it has

Many good changes today, ........I feel that mars has had too much power lately
in my life and in yours never mind this nation's soul
We have had not great news, but we will have Happy Holidays
Damn it. i think even a good Fritzmas

the god of war sucks.

[Whoa_Nelly]

9. the god of war sucks...

yet in the right place justice prevails :)

Feels like we are turning a corner...

[seaglass]

14. Is this astrology information because it isn't what I learned

about Mars' motion in my Astronomy class. I'm new to this so maybe there are some scientists who think Mars stops moving in its orbit or goes backwards?

[obxhead]

5. Awesome. Thanks for the heads up...

Had a great viewing here tonight.

[Whoa_Nelly]

7. Nice to know you shared it!

:hi:

when one of my BFs years ago was working with juvenile criminals out in the NV desert, one of the kids asked him:

"Hey! You think my mom is looking at the same moon I am tonight?"

Nice to know you saw it, too, tonight...feels cosmically connected :)

[pokerfan]

10. The Moon is also set to occult the Pleiades monthly beginning January

which is fun to watch through binoculars or a small telescope. It's a cycle that happens only every 18 years.

http://www.space.com/spacewatch/051202_night_sky.html

[IChing]

11. 18 years sounds like a cycle.

I don't think I need binoculars to read that one
but it is cosmic to be for sure.

[Whoa_Nelly]

15. Will watch for that!

If we're not fogged in here in the CA central valley

[Seabiscuit]

12. That's the first thing I noticed when I went out to the back yard tonight

[hfojvt]

13. I saw that in the sky

and thought it might be Mars. Unfortunately, Mars is not much to see with a small telescope. Even with a larger 8 or ten inch Schmidt at its closest point a couple years ago, it was not that impressive.

[Whoa_Nelly]

16. The configuration of the two together was cool to view

from the simple standpoint of enjoying the winter night sky :)

[pokerfan]

19. I have a 10" Newtonian

but I soon got bored with it. After I completed the Messier list, it was on to the Herschell 500, which are even smaller and fainter objects. The Moon is always interesting as were comets Hyakutake and Hale-Bopp. I'm actually thinking about selling it and downsizing to a quality Apochromatic since I don't think Deep Sky objects are my thing.

Weather permitting, every Halloween I like to set it up in front of the house and let the little beggars have a peek at Saturn, the Moon, Alberio, etc. I also hand out full size mars and Milky Way bars until I run out and switch to the Fun Size. (Bite Size is for the real cheapskates.)

[hfojvt]

20. oooh

major size envy. I cannot see that much Messier with 6 inches, and never really devloped a system for finding them either. I spent more than a few hours futilely trying to find the tanjed ring nebula. Usually by the time I found Jupiter and Saturn and Venus (yawn) my night was done. I spent alot of time looking for Uranus too before I figured out that I did not even have enough power to see it as a disc anyway, and in my childhood it always seemed that Mars was on the wrong side of the sun, at least during the summer-spring-fall viewing seasons.

[pokerfan]

21. Astro Cards!

I picked up a set of these. It made finding the Messies such a trivial excersize I felt like I was cheating. Each object has its own chart with a guide star. I would never had been able to navigate the Sagittarius clusters without it.
http://www201.pair.com/resource/astro.html/AstroCards/pg1.htm


The ring nebula requires averted vision, even in my 10". As soon as you look directly at it, it disapears (your cones are not as light sensitive as your rods) but as soon as you look to the side, it pops up again. Very cool object. Like a smoke ring or a giant cheerio.




You think you have size envy? This is the telescope one of our club members built:
http://www.runway.net/pilots/dan/fortyone-page1.html

[Whoa_Nelly]

23. *WoW* Thanks for the AstroCards link!

And man o man that scope the club member built is amazing!

[hfojvt]

24. yeah, my biology prof friend had a book like that

It was a neat system, and he found the ring nebula in a flash too. I had no problems seeing it, but I think he had an 8 inch too. I certainly had no such system when I was a kid 30 years ago. One trick I had was to line the sky object up so it was slightly above the tree line. Then finding it in the finder was a snap. That's how I found the globular cluster in Hercules, M-15 I think it is.

[pokerfan]

25. M13 is the Hercules Globular Cluster

Naked eye object if it's dark and clear enough.

But Omega Centauri (NGC 5139) is the finest Globular in the heavens. Charles Messier was just too far north to see it.

If you are far enough south in the spring, you should be able to see it easily with the naked eye or binoculars.

[atomic-fly]

17. I saw that last night...I didn't know it was mars.

There was a huge cloud circle(opening) with moon and mars in center. Looked awsome.

[Horus45]

18. Being an Aries, I always know the position of Mars

[redqueen]

22. Awww I missed it.

I still love this thread though. :D