Putting Mars in your sights the easy way
Last week the planet Mars passed closer to Earth than it has in 60,000 years.
Over the centuries, mankind has assigned different significances to the proximity of the planets, especially Mars, as the red planet has foretold wars and caused rioting in the streets when a radio show by the late Orson Welles described Martians landing in New York State.
Mars does not play a significant role in my religion or politics, but it does fascinate me.
My wife, on the other hand, believes that the recent proximity of Mars is an omen and precursor to cultural change toward a more enlightened society. Whether its passing brings a glimpse of our future home or harmony, I do not know, but nonetheless, my wife and I decided to throw a Mars party to celebrate.
If the guest of honour was Mars, the star of the party was a Meade Quasar 114mm mirror telescope that was driven by, you guessed it, my Mac PowerBook.
The telescope is one of a new breed of inexpensive, portable models that allow more people to explore the heavens.
Most governments do not have a programme for detecting space junk that may collide with Earth.
When this sort of thing is discovered, it is usually sighted first by dedicated amateur astronomers with small portable telescopes.
The 114mm is compact enough that we can take it camping, and with the clear skies away from city lights, we have seen the rings of Saturn and the stripes of Jupiter.
With Mars being only 34.6 million miles away during the party, we were able to see the polar ice cap and the mountainous area above its equator. Seeing details of far away planets never fails to leave me with a sense of awe. We are part of something incredibly big and fast moving.
That's where the Mac comes in. Using a program called Starry Night Pro, and with my PowerBook connected to the telescope via a telephone cord, the application will find the space object you are looking for and automatically adjust the telescope.
You simply tell the application where you are and, after getting the time of day from your Mac, it will bring up an image of the sky in real time. Then you align the application's compass with the direction in which you are looking and there you are - right in the middle of a virtual copy of the sky above you.
Click on a star and the application will tell you its name, or the names of all the planets, comets, satellites and nebulae that are on the screen. And if you cannot see what you are looking for in the real sky because of haze or clouds, it will show you where it is.
If you have the Pro version of Starry Night and a telescope with motor-driven controls, the software will point your telescope directly to whatever planet you would like to see. But that's not the cool part.
Since Earth is revolving at about 1,350km/h, and Earth and Mars are travelling in different orbits around the sun at different speeds, you are forever adjusting the scope to keep the object in view. But Starry Night Pro automatically tracks the object and keeps your telescope pointed at it. The maths required for the PowerBook's G4 processor to do these calculations in real time is quite impressive.
