If you have a telescope, you will want to use it in the coming months. It will be a while before you get another chance.
Mars is moving towards the best viewing position it will provide to us until the year 2031. Telescopes have begun to be prepared.
You will have to wait until after midnight to see it, but it will be worth the wait.
You can see what you can see tonight.
During this week, Mars will rise between the horns of the zodiacal constellation of the Bull and will be visible in the evening. Once it comes up over the east- northeastern horizon, there is absolutely no mistake about it. Mars is shining like a pumpkin-colored light of magnitude -0.4 and is currently in third place. The brighter an object appears in the sky, it is.
Mars will be the fourth-brightest object in the night sky behind the moon, Venus and Jupiter by November 11th.
Mars will be about 3.5 degrees to the right and slightly below a gibbous moon as they rise above the east- northeastern horizon. The Red Planet will look like a yellow-orange tint under a high sun.
We don't get a lot of a good look at Mars. It is only twice the size of the moon and half the size of the Earth. It spends most of its time away from us on the other side of its path. If the moon is not visible through my telescope, most people will ask to see Mars.
Mars is one of the most disappointing telescopic objects, usually appearing as a small orange blob. When Earth makes a close approach to Mars, we don't get a chance to see the markings on its surface until 26 months later.
Mars is opposite to the sun in the sky when the sun is setting. During the middle of the night, it reaches its highest point in the sky as the sun begins to rise. Some of the oppositions of Mars are better than others. Some close approaches between the two planets are closer than others. There are bunches of two or three that repeat in a cycle that lasts 15 to 17 years.
The downturn of that cycle is currently being experienced by us. In July of last year, Mars came within an exceptional 35.78 million miles of Earth, and in October of 2020 it came within 38.57 million miles. Mars will be closest to Earth on November 30th. The time is eastern standard time. From center to center, the planet will lie 51.61 million miles from Earth. On December 8th, Mars will be in opposition to the sun.
Mars' disk diameter will be equal to 17 arcs seconds when it comes closest to Earth in November. If you have a telescope, you will be able to see a silvery white Jupiter in the eastern sky.
Mars' disk will be about one-third the size of Jupiter's when the Red Planet comes closest to Earth in the fall. This is still large for Mars, even though it may seem small. From November 21 to December 10, Mars' apparent size will be larger than it has ever been.
There are two types of telescopes for planetary work, a large, high-quality telescope and a large, long-focus reflecting telescope. You can still make useful observations with a good telescope. The atmospheric steadiness can change from hour to hour and can affect image quality.
Mars is both a challenge and a delight to both casual and serious watchers. It is possible to see the north polar cap, dusky surface features, clouds and dust events with a high quality telescope. The disk of Mars will look the same size as the moon if you use an eyepiece with 105-power.
You may only see a mark for a short time. As you become familiar with its appearance, you'll be able to see details that were hidden to you at first. Don't forget:
You will see more if you look more.
At the beginning, we noted that Mars was shining brightly in our late-night sky and invited watchers to see what they could see. The planet will be visible in the east-southeastern sky by midnight. It will be an object in the evening after the Dec. 8 opposition.
Mars will soar in the night sky because it is small. Mars is riding close to the northernmost part of the ecliptic. It passes very high overhead every night for observers at mid-northern latitudes, far above the thick layers of air and poor atmospheric, which made it difficult for northern observers during its close pass by the Earth in the summer of 2018).
It's time to put a big circle on your calendar. During the evening hours, the full moon will pass very close to Mars, which will cause a question to be asked many times: "What is that bright yellow-orange star just below the moon?". The most casual of people will be interested in Mars that night.
Mars is happy to be watching.
There is an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy in Natural History magazine and on other websites.
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