Mars Shines Bright: Opposition & Lunar Occultation
Mars, the beautiful red planet and Earth's closest neighboring planet will be in opposition, as it pairs up and also gets covered up by the Moon.
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The full January Wolf Moon will be a sight to see this Monday night in our cold winter sky, but Mars may just end up taking center stage.
Mars, the beautiful red planet and Earth's closest neighboring planet will be in opposition, as it pairs up and also gets covered up by the Moon.
Opposition is the best time to view a planet.
It's when the Sun, Earth and an outer planet all happen to line up in their orbits or when the planet is "opposite" the Sun.
This time around, Mars will be that outer planet.
As seen from Earth, Mars will rise as the sun sets, be overhead around midnight and set as the sun rises in the morning.
It's not rare, but with Mars, this happens every 26 months. This time around, the moon makes it a little more special.
Mars is a very identifiable planet with the unaided eye, and you may have already seen it in the night sky. When in opposition, it's closer to Earth, so naturally it's brighter. With the full moon around, it may be hard to see right before the occultation. This will take place just before 9:30 p.m. on Monday night. The occultation will take about an hour and then Mars will re-emerge on the other side.
Mars's orbit is highly eccentric, meaning it's not circular but more elliptical and even more eccentric than Earth's.
This means that some oppositions are closer than others and its brightness can vary. This one isn't close, but it's not the farthest either. The brightness will reach magnitude -1.4, which is very similar to Sirius, the brightest star in our sky.
The Wolf Moon on the other hand will be a nice site against the cold winter sky.
It will be visible as "almost full" a day before and after Monday. By Tuesday night, the moon will look very similar, but be farther away in the night sky from Mars.
