JUN 16, 2003 - Mars Previewer II is a wonderful little (3 Mb download) freeware by Leandro Rios, made available by the good folks at Sky & Telescope. A 32-bit (Windows 95 and higher) astronomical utility, Mars Previewer II lets you input the date and time of your choice, and get yourself a picture of Mars as viewed from Earth at that instant. Mouse over the Mars disk, and you get the Martian longitude and latitude of your cursor's location on the face of the Red Planet; also the name of any prominent feature which happens to be there. There's an auto feature that's supposed to generate a time-lapse sequence for you, but it didn't work on my Windows XP Pro machine. Still, as Mars comes in for its super perigee this summer, Mars Previewer II can help point you in the right direction if you plan to scout out the Red Planet a bit.
