Mars

Argh.  All this nonsense in the news about Mars being so close to the Earth has got me all excited about seeing it.  But what I haven’t seen in any of these news reports is a simple statement pointing out the fact that Mars looks just like a bright star.  It’s not like you look up in the sky and say, "Oh, look, Mars!"  No, you look up, and you say, "Um... where is it??"

I got a handy "all sky map" which shows, well, the whole sky... including Mars.  I went outside and found it.  And it looks just like a star.  To me, it doesn’t look "red" or "orangish" like the reports say.  It looks white, or maybe a little yellowish, sort of like......... what’s the word................ a star.

I’m not an astronomer or anything.  I don’t know a whole lot about stars and constellations.  Without this map, I wouldn’t have known that there isn’t supposed to be a big bright spot where Mars currently is.  I do have a 150x telescope, which makes the moon look really really big and close.  But even through that, Mars looks just like any old star.