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If there ever was a “maverick” among the planets with the naked eye, that title would certainly go to Mars.
Just nine months ago, Mars approached within 38.8 million miles (62.43 million kilometers) of Earth, the closest to us since August 2003, and it won’t be before September 2035. Mars appeared three times brighter than Sirius. , the brightest star in our sky and even rivaled Jupiter in brightness. In fact, Mars ranked third among the brightest nocturnal objects behind the moon and Venus.
But it was then, it is now.
Related: The brightest planets in the July night sky: how to see them (and when)
Venus shows the way
Right now, Mars is on the other side of the light spectrum. Sunday evening (July 11), look low in the west-northwest sky approximately 45 minutes after sunset.
You can use a very visible landmark to make a positive identification, because the first object that will attract your attention will certainly be the dazzling Venus. Once you find it, look about a degree to its immediate left and you will see Mars appearing as a yellowish orange star, albeit far from unusually bright.
Don’t expect the breathtaking object that graced our skies in early fall 2020. On the contrary, right now Mars is much further from us at a distance of 231 million miles (371 million km). So Mars will only appear about 1.7% as bright as nine months ago and barely 0.5% as bright as Venus.
In fact, because it is currently shining at magnitude +1.8, Mars has risen to the rank of a second magnitude object; to make sure you make a positive observation, I highly recommend using binoculars.
The moon floats nearby
Another object appearing in the general vicinity of the two planets in the fading evening twilight will be the moon. Two days after the new phase, it will appear as a capillary arc of light, illuminated at only 4% and located about half a dozen degrees to the right of the two planets. If your closed fist is about 10 degrees at arm’s length, then the moon and the two planets will be about half a fist apart.
All three objects will remain in the west-northwest sky for approximately 90 minutes after sunset. Mars is in fact practically halfway between two other remarkable celestial objects. At 45 minutes after sunset, the sky may still be too bright to see the moon and Mars easily with the naked eye, so already noted you will likely need binoculars. But after another 15 minutes, the sky will have darkened enough that you can easily identify them with the naked eye, although they are all lower in the sky.
The scene will have changed significantly the following evening.
July 12 and beyond
On Monday July 12, the moon will have enlarged a little to 9% illuminated and will have moved almost 7 degrees to the top left of the two planets. But the positions of the planets have also changed; the distance between them will have been halved with Venus now sitting about half a degree to the right of Mars.
Venus will continue to rise in prominence – albeit rather slowly – in the western evening sky until the remainder of 2021.
As for Mars, it will continue to be evident as an evening object for a few more weeks or so, closely passing the bright bluish 1st magnitude star, Regulus on July 29. But as we move forward into August, it will get lost in the Sunset will shine and then go on a sort of pause as it transitions into the morning sky, eventually reappearing in the sky early in the morning around Thanksgiving to prepare. the ground for its gradual return to importance in 2022.
Joe Rao is an instructor and guest speaker at New York’s Hayden Planetarium. He writes on astronomy for Journal of natural history, the Farmers Almanac and other publications. Follow us on twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.
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