Color of Planets

Because of the size, composition, and distance of planets, they all have unique color and brightness. This was a very difficult observation first because it was difficult to find the planets and second because it is hard to gauge how bright they are. I spent some time looking for Venus and Jupiter but later realized that they had set before I was observing. Here is the information I believe corresponds to Mercury, Mars, and Saturn:

This observation exercise was very similar to the earlier post on color of stars. In this case, Mars appeared brightest and Saturn appeared faintest. I would assume this is because Saturn is much farther away than Mars.


The colors of the planets were also difficult to detect. My response my be biased because I already have a mental image of how the planets should appear. Mars seemed to have the easiest color to detect since it is a faint orange-red but Saturn and Mercury just seemed like white stars.


If I did this same project three months later I think my answers would not be accurate anymore as one planet may be closer and another farther, due to their revolution around the sun.