Monthly Night Sky information provided by Chris Vaughan (@Astrogeoguy) at Starry Night Education (@StarryNightEdu).

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Mars at Opposition (all night)

January 15 @ 8:00 pm - January 16 @ 5:00 am

Mars will officially reach opposition at 10 p.m. EST on Wednesday, January 15. On that night, the bright red planet will rise with the stars of Gemini at sunset, climb to its highest position due south around midnight local time, and then set at sunrise. The bright, recently full moon will rise two hours after Mars and follow it across the sky. On opposition night, Mars will shine with a peak visual magnitude of -1.38. Although its distance from Earth of 59.83 million miles, 96.29 million km, 0.644 AU, or 5.35 light-minutes will be slightly farther than it was at closest approach on January 11, Mars will still be an impressive sight in backyard telescopes for some time, showing an apparent disk diameter of 14.55 arc-seconds. (In comparison, Jupiter’s disk spans about 42 arc-seconds.) Mars’ Earth-facing hemisphere on January 15 will display its bright northern polar cap – visible as a small bright spot along the planet’s edge, as well as the dark Aurorae Planum, Acidalia Planitia, Meridiani Planum, Terra Sabaea, Syrtis Major Planitia regions, and the lighter-toned Chryse Planitia and Arabia Terra regions. Mars oppositions occur approximately every 25.5 months.

Details

Start:
January 15 @ 8:00 pm
End:
January 16 @ 5:00 am
Event Category:
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