Help Please ?

My scope is an Atlas Explorer D=60mm F=700mm. Just above Orion belt to the right,theres a bright orange star.Now someone said it might be Mars,I viewed it with H20 mm and it was just appearing as a grey ball when I focused in,I then changed to a H8mm but I have spent the last half hour trying to view it through the scope and I can't even see it,the moon comes out brilliant,but no sight of that bright yellow light,is it that my telescope isn't good enough. A carpenter always blames his tools. I'm reading this months edition of Sky at Night and I'm looking at the sky map on page 55, from what I can make out that bright light may be something called Aldebaran and not Mars. I'm lost.

Hi,
To the far upper right of the belt is Aldebaren, the brightest star in Taurus,when you go to a higher power the stars can look less colourfull, you can easily loose the moon at higher powers also.

when is Saturn going to be viewable,would the telescope I have be anygood to view it.I'm hooked

Hi,
You should be able to see a tiny small set of rings around the globe, Saturn is rising in the east next to regulus in Leo and is visible now although it is low at the moment.

Mars is currently straight above Orion's belt (and slightly farther away than Aldebaran).

But Mars is a pretty tough object in a telescope. Saturn will definitely give more of a "wow!" You will want to wait for it to get higher though (either later in the evening or later in the month). Targets low to the horizon suffer more from bad "seeing" (turbulence in the atmosphere).

Cheers,
-- Jeff.

Saturn will definitely give more of a "wow!" You will want to wait for it to get higher though (either later in the evening or later in the month).

Ciaran may have to wait till he gets a bigger scope for that "Wow!" moment! A 60mm refractor will definitely give you the shape of it, but no detail i.e. you won't see any cloud belts or ring patterns. But don't be disappointed!

Seanie.