How to Find Mars in a Telescope?

[eri]

I know my knowledge is lacking so please be kind. I bought a Celestron Firstscope 114mm. My problem is I can't seem to find/see Mars. I have had absolutely no problem locating Saturn, Jupiter, and Venus but Mars is eluding me. The sky charts are helpful and I am sure I am looking in the right area but each object I view looks like a star. The other three planets I viewed were clearly planets. Is Mars in such a position right now that it does not look like a planet? I have tried using both the 10mm and 20mm optics. Saturn is small but it is impressive to see the planet and its rings. There is no mistaking it or Jupiter or Venus for stars. Could I be looking at Mars and be mistaking it for a star? I honestly think I have it correctly identified with the naked eye but it does not look at all like the other three planets.

I fairly certain I have correctly identified Betelgeuse and Capella and Mars should be roughly in between. I have seen Pollux, Castor, Saturn, Orion's belt. Due to the brightness of the moon and nearby light pollution there are only a few visible objects (naked eye) between Capella and Betelgeuse.

Any advice?
Jim

[Eugene N]

Jim,
As it happens I was looking at Mars just last night. It is pretty small at this point and I couldn't make out any surface features. It is currently located about half way between Capella and Betelgeuse as you say. If you know where Zeta Tauri, and Alnath are in Taurus (they are the stars that form the ends of Taurus' horns) Mars forms almost an equilateral triangle with these two stars. Look for a slightly reddish tinge to it's color. But as I said, at 80x last night it was not a whole lot bigger than most stars, so you could have been looking at it and not realize it. Keep at it, and clear skies,

[Tasm]

mars is around 5 arc seconds right now- your scope max resolving power is probably over 1 arc second- so you wont get much image size or resolution at the moment

[Carlos_dfc]

When were these posts made - forum system time says 'today', but it's a long time since Mars was anywhere near halfway between Betelgeuse and Capella.
It is now way down in Virgo - just above beta Virginis - and is only 4 arcsec in diameter.
It's getting closer to the Sun all the time, and will soon sweep round behind, before being an early morning target - BUT, we are gonna need to wait until autumn 2009 before it's substantially nearer, and therefore big enough to see any significant detail on the surface - as it heads towards next 'opposition' in mid-feb 2010

Opposition is the best time to view any planet, because that is when it is in a straight line drawn from the Sun, through Earth, and on to the planet in question. This is when the planet is at (or very near to) it's closest point to Earth, and therefore is the time when it is at it's biggest in the eyepiece.
Best time of night to view any planet is when it is at it's highest in the sky - then the light from it has to pass through less air (our atmosphere)
Surprisingly, when an object which is low in the sky, say 5 or 10 degrees altitude, the light has to pass through 6 times as much air, than if it was overhead.
And as any planetary observer will tell you, lower (more atmosphere to pass through) means wobbly images - a bit like looking at a coin in the bottom of a fast flowing stream.
Planets are always at their highest when they cross the meridian - in other words, when they are due south (as seen from the Northern hemisphere)
On opposition night, this comes at midnight.

So - best time to view any planet - for the best chance to see best detail - is within a couple of months either side of opposition, and within about an hour of the planet being 'due south'
Of course this isn't always practical - but just remember that.....
Higher the better - for stable views
Near to oppostion, for larger image