Last night, well for the last several nights really, I could easily make out Mars hanging about 10 o'clock in the northern sky. It's one of the brightest lights in the sky and it's bright orange, just like you'd expect it to be. Amazing.

For someone who grew up on Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter of Mars stories, this is really exciting. I have always been fascinated by Mars. I even have a Nat'l Geographic map of the planet hanging above my bed.

The viewing is only going to get better and better, according the obsevratory websites. The Red Planet is becoming well placed for observation and will be at its closest to the Earth for nearly 60,000 years in August. August 28th appears to be the best night for seeing Mars as a "full disc" in the sky. Not that matters for me, looking at it with my naked eye.

There is one telescope amongst the volunteers in Samoa, but it's rummored to be busted, out of alignment or something that renders it unusable. C'est la vie.

There's some really good information about viewing Mars on the Arkansas Sky Observatory website. The NASA site also is choc full of info, pics, etc.