by Bob Berman
Sky fashions come and go, but affection for Mars never wanes. Even as recent discoveries of deep-space sparklers like quasars, novas, and exploding galaxies shift attention from planetary gazing, the Red Planet stubbornly refuses the status of a has-been.
This view of Mars was made from Voyager images. The polar caps, craters, volcanoes, and plains are easily seen with a good telescope. But even with the naked eye, Mars is dazzling this month.USGS/SPL/Photo Researchers
Instead, Mars amazes with new discoveries: fluvial channels cut by ancient rivers, surface soils brimming with oxygen, and fossils of what may be microscopic life, found on a blown-off chunk of Mars that crashed into Antarctica 13,000 years ago. Mars, with its fantastic sky (sometimes pink, sometimes cobalt blue) and chocolate-colored deserts, never fails to intrigue. Beginners often assume that capturing Martian detail is as easy as buying a good telescope, but there ...
