Mars attracts! Thousands queue for a close encounter with the Red Planet

The Space Museum suffers a Martian invasion as stargazers enjoy a view not seen for 60,000 years

Some only saw a red dot. Some said it was like a glowing blob of jelly. Others said the vision brought them closer to the rest of the universe.

Thousands of stargazers queued for hours outside the Hong Kong Space Museum in Tsim Sha Tsui for the chance to glimpse Mars through one of the facility's telescopes. The red planet has not come so near to Earth in almost 60,000 years.

At its closest, at 5.51pm, a mere 55,758,000km separated Earth from Mars. The planet will be the brightest celestial object in the night sky, apart from the moon, between now and early October. Telescopes were installed on the Space Museum's roof so the public could get a better view.

Kirsty Wong, a 24-year-old Kowloon travel agent, said she had queued for four hours and had only seen a red dot. 'We're quite disappointed. We waited all that time and we only had 10 seconds under the telescope and all we could see was a red circle.'

Raymond Yau, 35, from Mid-Levels, was more swept up by the atmosphere, however. 'It is a once-in-a-lifetime experience,' he said. 'It is amazing to believe that a human cannot go to Mars yet we can see it so close. It makes me feel like I have taken one step further out into the universe.'