This was taken with the Hubble space telescope.
As I mentioned last week,
I bought the $300 ETX-70 hoping to see Mars up close. Anyone who is vaguely
familiar with astronomy is probably laughing at the "typical newbie" naiveté
when it comes to astronomy. The ETX-70 is a 2 inch or so telescope. 2 inches
describes the diameter of the lens. Basically it just means that the dot in the
sky is a slightly sharper bigger dot.
If you want to have a shot at seeing anything of Mars, you really need at
least an 6 to 8 inch telescope and realistically a 14 inch one would be even
better. Of course, those cost a lot more.
It's too late for me to see Mars but I can go on the web and see stuff way
beyond any telescope I could afford would show anyway. But I am thinking of
upgrading to the ETX-125 which is, I believe a 6 inch telescope that should let
me see Jupiter and Saturn pretty decently. Mars will still be a dot but a much
bigger dot.
If you get a chance, go outside and look. After 9pm or 10pm you can see Mars
in the South East. It's the brightest "star" in the sky