"Iron Jeff" wrote in message
...
Greetings...

No telescope here, but I got up early this morning and looked with
binoculars. No surface detail, but it looked like it was in a gibbous
phase.

If you're interested in Mars' upcoming close approach this August, you may
want to check out the August issue of Sky & Telescope magazine, which is
available at all fine booksellers. There is LOTS of good info in this issue
about how to view not only Mars, but also some of its surface details and
its two tiny moons.

Try checking out Mars about one and a half months from now... that's when
it'll be closer to us than it's been since the Cro-Magnons were painting
bulls on cave walls in northern Spain.

Jack.
--
Amateur radio operator (General class), shortwave listener since 1980, and
amateur astronomer since Hector was a pup.