Mars Closest to Earth (overnight)

A few days before Mars reaches opposition on January 15-16, the red planet will be closest to Earth on Saturday, January 11 in the Americas. That night, Mars will be 59.70 million miles, 96.08 million km, or 5.33 light-minutes away. You can view the bright reddish planet from late evening onward, near the bright stars Pollux and Castor in Gemini. In a telescope, the planet will exhibit its maximum apparent disk size of 14.6 arc-seconds, revealing the greatest amount of surface detail this year. Mars will continue to brighten in the sky until opposition night. The difference in the two dates arises because the distance between Earth’s and Mars’ elliptical orbits is increasing at this time of the year.