Starting with planets, you’ll find one in the evening sky and two in the morning. Mars remains the sole planet visible after sunset, and it sits half-way up the western sky as the sky grows dark, in the constellation Taurus. Mars has been in the sky since November 2019 and you’ll still see it in […]
This has been true for weeks and remains true today: Mars is the only planet in the evening sky. The earth and Mars were closest six months ago, when the earth, on our inside orbit, passed slower-moving Mars, and we’re now leaving it behind as we race ahead around the sun. Mars remains easily visible […]
Mars remains the sole planet in the evening sky. It’s in the news as craft from several countries go into orbit around it and land on its surface, and you can see Mars as one of the brighter “stars” high in the southwest as darkness falls. A short distance to the left, or east, of […]
Only two months ago we enjoyed the remarkable sight of Jupiter and Saturn sitting extremely close together in the evening sky, and then Mercury made a great appearance when it was easy to see. These three planets then moved close to the sun, but they’re back – now on the other side of the sun […]
This will be true for some time: Mars is the one planet in the evening sky (not counting Uranus which is nearby), and it’s high in the southwest at sunset. Mars is 11 light-minutes away, which means that the light of Mars we see now left Mars 11 minutes ago. This is true of radio […]
Mars remains the sole planet visible tonight, and you can easily see it high in the southwest as darkness falls. It remains visible until it sets after midnight. Mars is brighter – and oranger – than any star in the area so you’ll have no trouble identifying it. Three spacecraft reach Mars this month, an […]
The sole planet visible tonight in both the evening and morning sky is Mars, since all the others are behind the sun (or in front of it in the case of Mercury). But Mars is easy to see. At our southernly latitude it’s nearly overhead as darkness falls, and it’s the brightest “star” in that […]
Beginning with planets, two are out this evening – Mars and Mercury. Mercury is hard to see and getting harder by the day. Being on an orbit that is inside ours it never strays far from the sun, so it’s always near the horizon in twilight. It was at its greatest angular separation from the […]
Jupiter and Saturn have left the evening sky while at the same time Venus is leaving the morning sky, leaving bright Mars to shine down on us. But this week and most of next Mercury makes an excellent although brief appearance in the evening sky, and if you’ve never seen it, this is a good […]
Jupiter and Saturn were in conjunction last month, and at their closest they were separated by a scant 1/10°. They’re still close, and on the 11th they’re separated by 2½° and remain a nice double planet in binoculars. But Mercury joins them, and for a few days only you have the opportunity to see three […]
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