Mars Experience

I was all set to write about the awesome experience of seeing Mars on Sunday night.  My step-son flew in for the weekend and was as excited as me to go out after sunset and view Mars . . . After all, it was to be a phoneme, a phoneme that doesn't happen often.  We read a bunch of articles throughout the day, figuring out which direction we would need to focus our attention, and we even borrowed my cousin's brand new telescope.  One of the articles said Mars could  almost be the size of a full moon.  So out we went just after sunset, picked the spot to focus the telescope and waited . . . and waited . . . and then it appeared.  Well, we think it appeared, a pin head dot about the size of a small star. Yes, it had a red tinge to it, especially seeing it through the telescope, but was no bigger than an average star.  It was disappointing to say the least, but we did see the moon rise over the mountains which was spectacular.  A bright light appeared behind the mountains just before a sliver of the moon appeared.  Mars, was a bit of a bust, but the spectacular moon rise made up for it!  Here is a picture taken with my phone (so not great quality) just after the moon rose above the mountains.  Yea, if you look really closely the tiny dot to the right is Mars!