Planetary Conditions

Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) observations of Mars' global dust storm of 2001.

While spacecraft have visited most of the planets in our solar system they do not provide a constant watch on changes in planetary detail. The Hubble Space Telescope is also great at homing in on planetary atmospheres but constant monitoring often isn't possible or financially desirable. Amateur astronomers are often the first to alert the world to storms on other planets or other unexpected changes in a planets appearance -- meteor impacts on Jupiter, odd changes in Mars' atmosphere and Saturnian storms have all been picked out, not by government-funded projects, but amateurs using increasingly sophisticated "off the shelf" equipment.(Jul 29, 2013 03:48 PM ET // by Mark Thompson)