Star Points for July, 2001; by Curtis Roelle Use the Web for Planning When to Look Up Last month I mentioned that during May with the help from some my backyard observatory was completed. Since its construction Marstown Observatory has also added a world wide web presence at http://members.fortunecity.com/marstown/. Feel free to visit the dome on-line anytime day or night. In the meantime the observatory has been busy on clear nights keeping an eye pointed toward Mars which remains well placed during July having reached its closest point to the earth on the first day of Summer in June. In July Mars' apparent diameter shrinks from its maximum size by about 13% to 17.1 arcseconds. I recently received an electronic communication from a new amateur astronomer in Honolulu who asked, "So, please describe what you saw of Mars?" He was using a brand new 5 inch Maksutov telescope. He reported seeing Mars as "A big whitish ball," and asked, "Where's the red?" As Mars and Earth drew closer the red planet's apparent brightness increased. To the naked eye its color changed from ruddy to orange and finally turned an almost golden color. In telescopes it brightened as well appearing to turn pale. In mid-sized and larger telescopes the color of Mars' deserts is a pale pink sometimes described as salmon. The darker Martian "seas" or Marae appear to have a brownish tint. Depending on what side of Mars we are looking at there may be many features or Mars may appear rather bland. Westminster Astronomical Society (WAS) member Matt Orsie found a PC (Windows) application on the web that appears to be quite useful for displaying features of Mars that visible at any given time. It can also be used to predict when certain features, including the very difficult to see Martian moons Phobos and Deimos, may be visible. The URL for this free Mars previewing program is http://members.nbci.com/marsprev/mpenglish.htm. To the chagrin of the amateur astronomer Summer months have more hours of sunlight than darkness. Because of this the Sun is never very far below the local horizon, even at midnight. Thus this is a good season for observing artificial earth satellites because even those which are fairly low may be illuminated by sunlight during the night making them visible to the naked eye. The brightest artificial satellite currently orbiting the Earth is the new International Space Station (ISS). It is continuing to grow as new modules are added and as a result should continue to brighten with each new addition. The following URL for predicting when the ISS will be visible from cities around the world was provided courtesy of WAS member Richard Schoen: http://www.skypub.com/sights/satellites/iss_na.shtml. Richard is editor of the club's monthly newsletter, The Mason-Dixon Astronomer. Finally, a reminder that the next public planetarium program at the Bear Branch Nature Center (BBNC) is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, July 28. Please call the nature center at 410-876-9234 for reservation information.