Mars and tonight's blue moon

[kat (1)]

I love it. I can't take a good pic but just look outside and the little red planet is hanging out near the moon. 

http://earthsky.org/tonight/blue-moon-from-dusk-until-dawn

[Troy Spiral (13)]

I'm late to the post but this was/is a big deal from an astronomical standpoint.   

 

"This Saturday night, May 21, will be special for two reasons: the "blue" moon, and the fact that Mars is atopposition--it's on the opposite side of the Earth from the Sun.

But what's the significance of any of that? Quite a lot, actually, at least for Mars, so let's look at it first. As we all learned in school, Mars is the fourth planet in the Solar System, so it circles the sun in a larger, slower orbit than the Earth does--the Martian year lasts nearly two Earth years. Because the Earth is faster, it catches up with Mars every couple of years, and passes it on its inside track. That's when the two planets are closest together, and when Mars looks biggest. That makes a big difference for skywatchers, as the second image on the left shows. During the close encounter between the two planets, at some point Mars will be on the exact opposite side of the Earth from the Sun. That's the opposition that's happening on May 21. Because Mars' orbit isn't a perfect circle, it doesn't necessarily come closest to Earth on the same day as opposition. This time around, it will be closest to Earth on May 30, and that's the closest it's been in 10 years."

https://www.denverlibrary.org/blog/ross/red-planet-blue-moon-resources-skywatchers

 

Mars will be a boss for another week+ .    Blue moon isn't a huge deal since they happen every 2-3 years but both together (was) special. 

As for mars Hubble took this picture, about as good as it will ever get until the  James Web Space Telescope replaces it.   (from earth orbit anyway)

 

 

Somewhat off topic. I gave up on trying to get my POS toy telescope on mars (really some crap from toys R us cost like 60 bucks 20 years ago) and the cell phone.... managed this with the moon a while ago, although it seems reversed or something.   This was a miracle because due to the "seeing"  (disturbance in the atmosphere) things are a bit blurry ... blurry...  then it clears up for a second or two and its like WOW... then blury blurry... trying to get the god damn CELL PHONE to look through the telescope lense?  I shoulda had a second phone on a tripod recording the swearing and fist clenching. (and face down ass up position I was in most of the time)

 

Since I was a teenager I wanted a decent telescope (never happened) , VR (don't get me started) and  Computer (long since, although the current one is starting to become crappy, and now I seem to be obsessed with a quality drone... all of which is stuff poor people need to forget about hehe)

 

But for the moon you don't "need" a great telescope, even just binoculars it really looks good if you have a little patience.

 

 

[kat (1)]

I always wanted a telescope when I was young. I was always fascinated with what was going on up there, I'd just lay in the grass and try and figure out what shapes I saw in the clouds and stuff like that.

*Actually I probably was trying to see if God was really up there walking around on the clouds and watching us like my grandma and the Sunday school teacher told me.😇😈