Celestia Forums

I used my 12X40 binoculars to see Mars at 27-28/8night,i saw a small black-grey object located very closed to Mars,When i checked with Celestia,the postion of the unknown object is the same as the moons of Mars in Celestia,was the unknown thing really Mars's two moons?In 28/8,I also saw the unknown object,but the position was changed and also located near Mars.

jcyf007 wrote:I used my 12X40 binoculars to see Mars at 27-28/8night,i saw a small black-grey object located very closed to Mars,When i checked with Celestia,the postion of the unknown object is the same as the moons of Mars in Celestia,was the unknown thing really Mars's two moons?In 28/8,I also saw the unknown object,but the position was changed and also located near Mars.

Mars' two bright moons are 11.2 and 12.3 mag and quite close to the enormous glare from Mars. Typically, they are less than 30 arcsec's away and at best about 1 arcmin!

You need a big telescope to be able to use high magnification such that Mars can be moved outside of the field of a high power eyepiece! But even with 8-10 inch telescopes > 500 x Mars' moons are not an easy matter.

Bye Fridger