Mars is coming, and if you have a telescope, you will want to make the most of this opportunity in the coming months. It will take a long time before you have another good chance.
And this fact is absolutely true: Marsthe only planet from whose surface we can see in every detail a landit is now moving towards the best observation position it will provide us until 2031. Diligent planetary observers are already starting to equip their telescopes.
If you haven’t seen it yet, it will be worth looking for this week, even if you will have to wait until midnight to get a good look at it.
Related: Night sky, September 2022: what we see tonight [maps]
Mars is currently located halfway between the two horns of the zodiac the bull, Taurus and during this week it will increase towards 10:30 pm DSST. There is no doubt that it once appears above the eastern and northeastern horizon. Mars currently shines like a bright pumpkin light with a magnitude of -0.4 and is currently in third place after Sirius and Canopus among the 21 brightest stars. (The smaller the object size, the brighter it is in the sky.)
But as it continues to move closer to Earth over the next few weeks and months, Mars will only become brighter – it will overtake it. Siriusthe brightest star in the sky by 11 November will therefore occupy the fourth position in the night sky behind the Moon, Venus and Jupiter.
On late Friday night (September 16) and early Saturday morning (September 17), Mars will hover approximately 3.5 degrees to the right and just below the waning moon as it rises above the east-northeast horizon (your fist closed that kept at a safe distance about 10 degrees in width). As you will see for yourself, the red planet will actually appear closer to the yellow-orange color, the same color as the dry desert under the high sun.
How to close?
It’s not often that you get a close look at Mars. First, it is a small world, twice the size of the moon and about half the size of planet Earth. And more often than not, it spends most of its time away from the other side of its orbit from us. I know from my many years of public outreach experience, that when I look at the sky outside through my telescope, if the Moon is nowhere to be seen, the thing most people will ask to see is Mars.
However, paradoxically, Mars is classified as one of the Most disappointing Telescopic objects, which usually appear as nothing more than a small orange dot with no features. The only time we get a legitimate picture of spotting marks on its surface, polar ice caps, clouds and potential dust storms roughly every 26 months or so, is when Earth approaches Mars, while our “orbiting” more smaller and faster eclipses Mars around the sun.
We call these contrasts, because Mars appears exactly opposite the Sun in the sky; When the sun goes down, Mars rises. She reaches her highest point in the sky at midnight and sets just as the sun begins to set. Opposition to Mars occurs a little over two years later, but not all are the same. Since both the orbits of Mars and Earth are moderately elliptical, some close approaches between the two planets are considerably closer than the other. The best comes in groups of two or three repeated in a cycle on average from 15 to 17 years.
We are now in a downward phase in that cycle. In July 2018, Mars reached an extraordinary distance of 35.78 million miles (57.58 million km) from Earth, and in October 2020 another unusually close approach came in at 38.57 million miles (62.06 million km). On this next occasion, Mars will approach Earth on the evening of November 30 (around 9:17 pm EDT). The planet will then be located 50.61 million miles (81.43 million km) from Earth measured from center to center. Mars will reach the sun eight days later, on December 8th.
–
–
(Opens in a new tab)
When it approaches Earth on November 30, the diameter of Mars’ apparent disk will be 17.2 arc seconds. To get an idea of how big this dimension is, wait until 8pm this week and, if you have a telescope, take a look at silvery-white and brilliant Jupiter below glistening in the eastern sky; Approximately 50 arc seconds will appear.
In contrast, the disk of Mars will appear about a third the size of that of Jupiter when the red planet approaches Earth by the end of the year. While it may seem small, keep in mind that it is still unusually large for Mars. Indeed, from November 21 to December 10, the apparent size of Mars will be greater than at any time until May 2031.
The best telescope for planetary work is a large, high-quality refracting telescope or a long focus reflecting telescope. With almost any good telescope, you can still make interesting and fruitful observations. However, the limiting factor is usually atmospheric stability, which can vary from hour to hour and greatly affect image quality.
For both casual and serious observers, Mars presents challenges and, with any luck, delights. In a high quality 4 or 6 inch (10 or 15 cm) telescope on a night of excellent still air, you may be able to peek into the Arctic ice sheet, dark surface features, clouds and dust. Using a magnifying glass with a power of 105 makes the disk of Mars appear the same angular size as the moon to the naked eye.
The sign can only appear in passing the first time it is glimpsed. But on subsequent nights, when you become aware of her appearance, you will be able to instantly recognize her and perhaps even see details that were initially invisible to you. Remember:
The more you look, the more you see.
Size isn’t everything
As we noted at the outset, Mars is already glowing in the night sky, inviting observers to see what they can see. By November 7, you will reach the planet high in the east-southeast sky by midnight. After opposing December 8, in the following months it will be a prime-time object as it recedes into the distance.
Almost as if to compensate for its relatively small apparent size, Mars would literally rise into the night sky. In fact, this year’s observing season notes that Mars is near the northernmost part of the ecliptic, in Taurus above. Orion. This means that it passes very high every night for observers in the mid-northern latitudes, well above the thick layers of air and poor atmospheric visibility that bothered northern observers during its exceptionally close passage from Earth during the summer of 2018.
December 7: M&M Night
Finally … be sure to circle your calendar on Wednesday, December 7th. During the evening hours, the full moon will pass very close to the surface of Mars, effectively obscuring it (called the invisible) for parts of North America, and will no doubt raise a question that will repeat itself many times that night: “What is this bright yellow? An orange star just below the moon? That night, even the most casual will turn their attention to Mars.
Good Mars watch!
Joe Rao works as a teacher and guest lecturer in New York Hayden Planetarium (Opens in a new tab). He writes about astronomy for Natural History Journal (Opens in a new tab)The Farmers calendar (Opens in a new tab) and other publications. Follow us on Twitter Embed the tweet (Opens in a new tab) and go Facebook (Opens in a new tab)
–
.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 "Nobody knew; The decision to select Asif Ali as the cleansing ambassador has been withdrawn")
