It's been a long wait, but the planet Mars reaches opposition later this month. The planet is already large enough to inspect with a small telescope, and it will remain large enough to observe through the beginning of September. While Mars is beautiful to the unaided eye, it is a little trickier to observe than Jupiter and Saturn. But with the right tools and a little practice, you can see some remarkable features on the surface of this cold and barren world (assuming the current planet-wide dust storm comes to an end soon). This Mars observing guide helps you get the best views of Mars over the next many weeks as the planet makes its closest approach to Earth in 15 years...