Mars continues its evening climb in the eastern sky and is growing in brightness and apparent diameter daily. It is now pretty close to its biggest and brightest of the season at 19" and mag -1.84. The actual peak will occur at the end of the month when Mars reaches just over 20" and a blazing mag -2.2. In the meantime, just kick back and enjoy the views. Incredible details on the red planet are visible to almost any decent telescope at this point... on virtually any clear evening. Those of you with high quality optics will be amazed at the views you get... especially on nights of good seeing.

We recently had the privilege of viewing Mars through the 24" Clark Refractor down at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. To say that the views were sweet through this magnificent instrument would be an understatement. These were without a doubt the finest views of Mars that I've ever seen. Mars will only improve over the remainder of the month... and will remain quite spectacular well into the fall. Be sure to look for the red planet each clear night we get throughout the fall.

This sweet shot was taken by Alan Friedman of Buffalo, NY. Nice work!!