Mars: The Star of the Show

They came in a procession of cars so long you would have thought the president was nearby again.

It was not the president who packed a large field in western Kennebunk Wednesday evening. It was the planet.

You know, the red one.

At 5:52 a.m. Wednesday, Mars was 34,646,418 miles away, the closest it has been to Earth in 60,000 years. While scientists have already over the past several years gleaned extraordinary amounts of information about Mars from space probes, amateur stargazers armed with portable telescopes are rushing to see the planet like never before.

Now, if only the weather would cooperate.

“I’d just like to see the darn thing, but it doesn’t look to me like it’s going to happen,” Elaine Hanscom of Kennebunk said, shrugging her shoulders and noting a thick string of clouds to the southeast, where the planet rises.

Families crowded into automobiles, packing binoculars, cameras and pets, and trekked to an observatory some never knew existed, waiting to catch a glimpse of the planet. Some shouted, “There it is!” when the planet, seemingly nestled in a blanket of clouds, briefly appeared.

At 8 p.m. Wednesday, the dirt road leading to the Astronomical Society of Northern New England’s Starfield Observatory was lined with automobiles. So many eager Mars-gazers arrived at the observatory that, 30 minutes later, society members were paying more attention to finding parking spaces for the deluge of uninitiated stargazers than to lining up their telescopes.

As 9 p.m. approached, more than a hundred amateur stargazers had crammed the observatory and the field nearby.

Club members took the influx of novitiates in stride. “This is a big deal because it raises the level of awareness of astronomy,” said Paul Howell, one of the society’s three directors.

Howell and his compatriots had plenty of advice to give rookie stargazers Wednesday. “People always ask, `How powerful is your telescope?’ ” said Tim Brown, vice-president of the society. “But there are so many optical designs that it’s hard to compare. It’s not always magnification that gives the best image.”

Both Brown and Howell said that anyone with good binoculars, and a good night’s rest, should get an excellent view of the planet over the next few weeks.

“The best time to look at (Mars) is going to be around midnight,” Howell said. “There’s really no rush. The difference between looking at it now and a few days from now is going to be minimal.”

The planet can be seen from Earth almost every two years, when the Sun, Earth and Mars are aligned – a phenomenon scientists call “opposition.” This year, the three bodies aligned at the same time Mars’ elliptical orbit was in a position to bring the planet the closest it’s been to Earth in recorded history.

Mars is currently brighter than any star, and will remain visible to the naked eye until Halloween. With a telescope, the planet’s polar ice caps, and some surface features, are visible, Brown said.

The planet may be viewed at several area observatories over the next three days. The Starfield Observatory in Kennebunk will be open from 9 p.m. until midnight today through Saturday.

The observatory at St. Joseph’s College in Standish will be open until midnight tonight and Friday; the Southworth Planetarium at the University of Southern Maine in Portland will show “Mars Quest” at 8 p.m. tonight, and will open its telescope for viewing at 9 p.m. The planetarium will open the telescope again at 9 p.m. Friday.

Staff Writer Elbert Aull can be contacted at 791-6335 or at:

eaull@pressherald.com