Before Saturday or Sunday’s dawn – December 5 and 6, 2015 – look east to view the waning crescent moon shining rather close to the Red Planet Mars on the sky’s dome. Then keep watching Mars! It’s going to get much brighter in the months ahead. Follow the links below to learn more:
Mars between now and May, 2016
Does Mars ever appear as big as Earth’s moon in our sky?
By the way, if you live in central and eastern Africa, you can actually watch the moon occult – cover over – Mars before dawn on December 6. Click here for more about the occultation of Mars.
EarthSky lunar calendars make great gifts. Order now.
Moon and planets on the morning of December 3, 2015. Photo by EarthSky friend Lyle Evans in Highland, California. Thank you, Lyle!
Watch for the moon to sweep past Mars on the mornings of December 5 and 6. On December 7, as seen from North America, the moon will actually cover over Venus in a spectacular occultation of Venus. Read more about the occultation here. For illustrative purposes the moon appears larger than it does in the actual sky. The green line depicts the ecliptic – sun’s apparent annual pathway in front of the backdrop stars.
Mars between now and May, 2016. Mars and Earth are now in this interesting stage of their mutual orbits around the sun where Mars lingers in our predawn sky for many months. With very bright Jupiter and super-bright Venus also in the predawn sky, Mars hasn’t been very noticeable. But just wait. Mars alternates in appearances in our sky, one year bright and the next faint. It has been faint throughout 2015, and that means that 2016 will be a good year for Mars!
In fact, it will be a very good year. Mars will shine as brilliantly in May, 2016, as Jupiter shines now in our predawn sky! That’ll be around the time of Mars’ opposition in our sky, when Earth sweeps between the sun and Mars and the distance between our two worlds is at its least for that two-year period.
Like all heavenly objects, Mars undergoes various cycles of appearances in Earth’s sky, and in the coming several years we’ll head toward the peak of Mars’ most magnificent cycle, whereby it becomes exceeding bright in our sky about every 15 to 17 years.
The peak of the upcoming Mars cycle will be 2018, but the 2016 appearance of Mars will be wonderful as well!
Watch for Mars in the months ahead. It’ll linger in our predawn sky through the year’s end, but in 2016 … whoa! Mars will suddenly begin to shift toward the evening sky, brightening all the while.
2016 will be an exciting time to view the Red Planet!
This image sometimes circulates on Facebook, with the claim that Mars will appear as big and bright as a full moon. It’s a hoax. Don’t believe it. Mars never appears as large as a full moon in Earth’s sky.
Does Mars ever appear as big as Earth’s moon in our sky? No, despite the fact that this hoax continues to spread around the Internet every year, usually in August.
On the morning of December 5, 2015 (Saturday morning), the moon’s angular diameter will be just shy of ½o (30’), spanning 29’ 31” of sky. This is almost as small as the moon’s angular diameter ever gets. That’s because the moon will reach apogee – its farthest distance from Earth for the month – on December 5.
The angular diameter of Mars, in contrast, is only 4.9” wide. Given that 1’ = 60”, we can figure that the moon’s angular diameter on December 5 is about 184 times greater than that Mars.
The distances of the moon and Mars, and therefore their angular diameters, change over time. The moon’s angular diameter varies from 29’ 20” to 34’ 06” and that of Mars from 3.5” to 25.1”. So even when the moon shrinks to its smallest and Mars swells to its largest, the moon’s angular diameter still exceeds that of Mars by some 70 times.
In other words … Mars never appears as large as the moon in Earth’s sky!
2016 isn’t the very best year for Mars, but it’s getting there! Here are Earth and Mars in their respective orbits, at each year’s opposition from 2003 to 2018. When Mars is relatively far from the sun, as at the March, 2012 opposition, it’s farther from us, too, and so appears fainter in our sky. But when Mars is near the sun around the time of its opposition – as it will be in July, 2018 – it’s an extra-close opposition and Mars blazes brightly in our sky. Diagram via Sydney Observatory.
Bottom line: Watch the moon and Mars pairing up in between the brilliant planets Jupiter and Venus in the predawn sky on December 5 and 6, 2015.
No double moon in 2015, or ever
Astronomy events, star parties, festivals, workshops for September-December, 2015
EarthSky astronomy kits are perfect for beginners. Order today from the EarthSky store
Donate: Your support means the world to us
from EarthSky http://ift.tt/1IzelaG
Before Saturday or Sunday’s dawn – December 5 and 6, 2015 – look east to view the waning crescent moon shining rather close to the Red Planet Mars on the sky’s dome. Then keep watching Mars! It’s going to get much brighter in the months ahead. Follow the links below to learn more:
Mars between now and May, 2016
Does Mars ever appear as big as Earth’s moon in our sky?
By the way, if you live in central and eastern Africa, you can actually watch the moon occult – cover over – Mars before dawn on December 6. Click here for more about the occultation of Mars.
EarthSky lunar calendars make great gifts. Order now.
Moon and planets on the morning of December 3, 2015. Photo by EarthSky friend Lyle Evans in Highland, California. Thank you, Lyle!
Watch for the moon to sweep past Mars on the mornings of December 5 and 6. On December 7, as seen from North America, the moon will actually cover over Venus in a spectacular occultation of Venus. Read more about the occultation here. For illustrative purposes the moon appears larger than it does in the actual sky. The green line depicts the ecliptic – sun’s apparent annual pathway in front of the backdrop stars.
Mars between now and May, 2016. Mars and Earth are now in this interesting stage of their mutual orbits around the sun where Mars lingers in our predawn sky for many months. With very bright Jupiter and super-bright Venus also in the predawn sky, Mars hasn’t been very noticeable. But just wait. Mars alternates in appearances in our sky, one year bright and the next faint. It has been faint throughout 2015, and that means that 2016 will be a good year for Mars!
In fact, it will be a very good year. Mars will shine as brilliantly in May, 2016, as Jupiter shines now in our predawn sky! That’ll be around the time of Mars’ opposition in our sky, when Earth sweeps between the sun and Mars and the distance between our two worlds is at its least for that two-year period.
Like all heavenly objects, Mars undergoes various cycles of appearances in Earth’s sky, and in the coming several years we’ll head toward the peak of Mars’ most magnificent cycle, whereby it becomes exceeding bright in our sky about every 15 to 17 years.
The peak of the upcoming Mars cycle will be 2018, but the 2016 appearance of Mars will be wonderful as well!
Watch for Mars in the months ahead. It’ll linger in our predawn sky through the year’s end, but in 2016 … whoa! Mars will suddenly begin to shift toward the evening sky, brightening all the while.
2016 will be an exciting time to view the Red Planet!
This image sometimes circulates on Facebook, with the claim that Mars will appear as big and bright as a full moon. It’s a hoax. Don’t believe it. Mars never appears as large as a full moon in Earth’s sky.
Does Mars ever appear as big as Earth’s moon in our sky? No, despite the fact that this hoax continues to spread around the Internet every year, usually in August.
On the morning of December 5, 2015 (Saturday morning), the moon’s angular diameter will be just shy of ½o (30’), spanning 29’ 31” of sky. This is almost as small as the moon’s angular diameter ever gets. That’s because the moon will reach apogee – its farthest distance from Earth for the month – on December 5.
The angular diameter of Mars, in contrast, is only 4.9” wide. Given that 1’ = 60”, we can figure that the moon’s angular diameter on December 5 is about 184 times greater than that Mars.
The distances of the moon and Mars, and therefore their angular diameters, change over time. The moon’s angular diameter varies from 29’ 20” to 34’ 06” and that of Mars from 3.5” to 25.1”. So even when the moon shrinks to its smallest and Mars swells to its largest, the moon’s angular diameter still exceeds that of Mars by some 70 times.
In other words … Mars never appears as large as the moon in Earth’s sky!
2016 isn’t the very best year for Mars, but it’s getting there! Here are Earth and Mars in their respective orbits, at each year’s opposition from 2003 to 2018. When Mars is relatively far from the sun, as at the March, 2012 opposition, it’s farther from us, too, and so appears fainter in our sky. But when Mars is near the sun around the time of its opposition – as it will be in July, 2018 – it’s an extra-close opposition and Mars blazes brightly in our sky. Diagram via Sydney Observatory.
Bottom line: Watch the moon and Mars pairing up in between the brilliant planets Jupiter and Venus in the predawn sky on December 5 and 6, 2015.
No double moon in 2015, or ever
Astronomy events, star parties, festivals, workshops for September-December, 2015
EarthSky astronomy kits are perfect for beginners. Order today from the EarthSky store
Donate: Your support means the world to us
from EarthSky http://ift.tt/1IzelaG
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