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The bright red point of light hovering straight overhead that lately has greeted me as I come home from work each night finally was the catalyst that had me lugging out my telescope for the first time in years.
Mars is as close to Earth as it has been in nearly 60,000 years. I had blown off several eclipses -- they will happen again -- but I just couldn't let this one go.
I came home from work several nights ago and looked up, between the oak trees. No clouds, no haze, and the half moon was just starting to rise, about 30 degrees up, so it was far enough away from the planet that the moon's light would not wash it out.
It was The Perfect Night.
I had viewed Mars the week before with a pair of old binoculars long abandoned in the trunk of my car. It was bright and beautiful indeed, but I was curious how much detail I could see with my telescope, which is weak but perfectly suited to a fairweather hack like me who is only drawn out to view the heavens when a big event happens.
"I'm think this is the night to see Mars. If I don't do it now, I may not get another chance," I said to the BF after we ritually pet Big Boy and unlocked the door.
The BF quickly and dutifully hauled the heavy telescope out to the driveway for me. It's harder to carry than you might think, because the telescoping legs of the tripod move up and down, the top part swivels and it's awkward to hold.
After he stood it up for me and secured the legs, I aimed the telescope almost straight up. I used the little sighting scope on top of the telescope to find Mars, which took seconds. It's by far the brightest light in the sky right now (other than the moon and sun), and it will be until it slowly inches across the horizon night after night and is washed out by dawn's light.
Good, Mars was right in the middle of the sighting scope. Now to choose an eyepiece. Hm, I had three, but I barely could remember which was the most and least powerful, much less their magnifications.
I was really excited. I was actually doing something for a change and not just talking about doing it. Big Boy's tail snaked around my legs as he walked circles around them. Bless him for keeping me company. The skeeters had found me and had started feasting; better make this fast.
Somewhere along the line, in the several years I've owned the telescope and moved it, I must have lost the little L-shaped mirror that aims the eyepiece up toward you, making it easier to look into it. Annoying, because now I had to bend over and then crane my neck to look up into the eyepiece. Grr. Oh well.
I picked what I thought was the least powerful eyepiece, thinking I would work my way up as I centered Mars in my sights each eyepiece at a time. Whew, I chose the right one. I hadn't totally forgotten everything.
I put the eyepiece in the holder and started wiggling the telescope around just slightly and turning the fine-tuning knobs, trying to find Mars in my view. The sighting scope gets fairly close, but when the magnification is that great, it is not exact.
There it was.
I turned the focus knobs a bit. With this eyepiece, Mars was super-bright red star. I stared in awe.
Big Boy continued his laps around my jeans, then used them as a scratching post for his clawless front paws.
I switched to the middle-powered eyepiece, and then to Big Daddy. It's actually fairly weak as far as telescopes go, but it's the most powerful I have.
A few more searches and knob turns, then focus.
I couldn't believe my eyes. I saw Mars as a rusty red disk -- tiny, in my weak-but-functional telescope, but definitely a disk -- and I could see a faint white area along one edge. I could actually make out one of Mars' polar caps, even if barely.
Awesome. It was hard to believe that I was staring at another planet, one that inspired Isaac Newton and Galileo hundreds of years ago, somewhere seemingly so unattainable yet is only one hop back from the sun. I hope we find life on Mars -- just a microbe would substantiate intelligent life elsewhere. I can't believe that the rock we're on is the only one in an infinite universe that can support life.
I took another few minutes to take some mental snapshots of my prize, then beckoned the BF for help. The skeeters had called for backup.
Current mood: Tired