Astronomy Picture of the Day 4-22-03

Vacation Announcement

I will be on vacation from June 2nd through June 9th.
If anyone would like to volunteer to post APOD during that time, please FReepmail me.
Otherwise the APOD will not be posted as I will be visiting relatives in California.

This summer, Earth and Mars will be about as close together as they ever are. Earth moves faster in its smaller orbit, and will pass Mars "in the inside lane", so to speak. PLUS Earth will be farther from the Sun than average, and Mars will be nearer the Sun than average.

Already I have noticed how much more prominent Mars is just in the past month or two.


	Where is Mars Now? By Joe Rao Special to SPACE.com

Mars Watch Contents

On Aug. 27, 2003, Mars will be less than 34.65 million miles (55.76 million kilometers) away -- closer to our planet than it’s been in about 73,000 years. The view will be stupendous. Track Mars’ growing brightness with SPACE.com's exclusive Mars viewing maps and charts, updated monthly.

Mars in April, 2003: Through this month you'll find Mars in the east-southeast. It rises about four hours before the Sun, crossing the meridian -- a line in the sky connecting south to north while crossing directly overhead -- at sunrise. Finding the Red Planet: Mars, the Roman God of War, is getting easier to spot each month. By mid-April, it should be pretty easy to find using these maps.

Maps created with Starry Night software ... click to enlarge
Early April, 2003 Mars is notable now in part because there are few other bright objects in the southwestern sky in the predawn hours. Look for the planet's ruddy color. The map shows the Red Planet as of 5 a.m. on April 5 from mid-northern latitudes. The map works on surrounding mornings just as well.	Late April, 2003 By the end of April, Mars is growing bright enough to be visible even after the first light of dawn. The map shows is for 5 a.m. on April 26 from mid-northern latitudes and works on surrounding mornings just as well. Use the crescent Moon as a locator on April 22, when it's just below and to the right of Mars. On April 23, the Moon is below and to the left of Mars.	From above Two panels show where Mars and Earth were in November, 2002, and how close they'll be in August 2003 (seen here). Note that as of now, as shown in the top panel, Earth, Mars and Venus are all lined up on one "side" of the Sun, explaining why we see Venus and Mars together in the morning sky. Arrows show direction of planet orbits.

How bright is Mars now?

As of April 15, the Red Planet is about 104 million miles (168 million kilometers) from Earth, and has brightened to a relatively bright magnitude +0.3. If you have been watching Mars since the beginning of this year, it now appears more than one magnitude brighter -- roughly three times -- than it was on New Year's morning. This is a bit brighter than the yellowish-white star Procyon, in the constellation of Canis Minor, the Little Dog, and just a bit dimmer than the bluish-white star Rigel, in Orion, the Hunter. Despite its increase in brightness, however, Mars is still dimmer than Saturn and noticeably fainter than brilliant Jupiter, although by the end of April, Mars and Saturn will be practically the same brightness. [More on other planets in our Sky Calendar]

On the astronomers’ scale of magnitude, larger numbers mean dimmer objects. Negative numbers are reserved for the brightest objects. Super-brilliant Venus, when visible, can be magnitude -4.0 and brighter.

Come August, Mars will shine at magnitude -2.9.

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