New Dust Storm on Mars Viewable with Telescopes

starexplorer writes "Space.com is reporting that a large dust storm has just began on Mars, just as the Red Planet has gotten in prime viewing location this weekend with a decent sized backyard telescope. An amazing stroke of luck for everyone this weekend! Three PDF Viewing Guides, movies and more available to help get you started."

Viewable with My Telescope?

[ackthpt]

I've got a Meade 125-ETX, I wonder how visible this will be. The last time Mars was close and I lugged the scope out It was mostly a brown smudge.

Mars will be 43,137,071 miles from Earth at around 11:25 p.m. ET Saturday.

That's 13,803,862,720 rods for the anti-science crowd.

Re:Mars Dust Bad!

[ackthpt]

While this is exciting for amateur astronomers to see a process like this happening on Mars, it's also very forboding and ominous. Mars has a bad habit of becoming engulfed in planet wide dust storms which almost totally hide the surface features of the planet.

Also plays havoc with tracking giant sand worms and collecting spice.

Lucky?

[Anonymous Coward]

An amazing stroke of luck for everyone this weekend!

Not if you live on Mars.

Not a dust storm ...

[b3x]

Its just a herd of RIAA lawyers migrating

Re:Viewable with My Telescope?

[Limburgher]

That's 13,803,862,720 rods for the anti-science crowd.

How many furlongs is that?

Re:Viewable with My Telescope?

[Rob_Ogilvie]

This year Mars is near the zenith at opposition which means less air between us and our target!

Actually, there's probably almost the same amount of air between us and Mars... just a little bit less space. :-) </nitpick mode>

Re:Viewable with My Telescope?

[Alien Being]

Air and space are insignificant. It's ether that matters.

Re:Awesome. Who Knew??

[technoextreme]

30 years ago, I learned in frickin' catholic elementary school that Mars had high-speed winds (on the order of a couple hundred knots), common massive unpredictable dust storms, and other nutty stuff going on, including weird volcanoes and possible large magnitude earth quakes. It would therefore be an almost impossible place to visit. Elton John made a similar point. And if he can agree with the nuns, then there must be some truth to it.

Yes that is a great idea. Let's base our whole opinion of a Mars mission on the opinion of a bunch of nuns and a muscian. They are truly more qualified than a sicentist. Also, Im not sure but I can't find anything about plate tectonics currently being active on Mars. I know there is evidence supporting that it did happen but I don't know if it is currently happening. Do you have any information.

Since nobody's mentioned it yet...

[azuroff]

It's all Bush's fault!!

It's not bad enough that he has to screw up one planet's climate, now he's messing with Mars! If only he had signed that Kyoto treaty...

In Case of Slashdotting - Backyard View of Mars

[Anonymous Coward]

.

The storm can be clearly seen in the equatorial region.