Planetary question

[bottletopburly]

when is mars due to grace our sky this year peeps

[Scooot]

Presume you mean when it's dark. I've been playing around with sky safari and it looks like its in the autumn in the early hours. Eg at about 4.30am on the 31/10/13 its at an altitude of 30 deg.

[bottletopburly]

Nice one cheers

[mallorcasaint]

Mars won't be visible in the night sky until Spring 2014.

[bottletopburly]

[John]

Yep - April 2014 and an apparent diameter of 15 arc seconds - still rather small. The July 2018 opposition will be much better the Martian disk will appear 60% larger than in 2014.

[bomberbaz]

Don't know where 2014 came from but I just checked stellarium and it should be visible in the East from mid August around 4 in the morning.

The window is brief due to the early dawn and it will be low in the sky but it gets better later on. Comes very good from November onwards

Think Mallorcasaint is being pessimistic and referring to cloud cover.

[Scooot]

Ok I concede. Is sky safari wrong, it is telling me its rising earlier in the mornings as we get later in the year, as does this this site.

happy to be corrected but very curious.

http://www.spaceanswers.com/astronomy/2553/whats-the-best-time-to-view-mars-from-the-northern-hemisphere/

[ronin]

Mars is at it's closest in April next year, 2014.

Should be visible before that but depending on when you look means it will be further away and so smaller, and it is not that big anyway.

Looking at the little simulator I use I wouldn't think it much point in looking until the start of 2014, try Christmas 13/14, you should see a small red dot but not a lot more. It will improve until April then the distance between us increments again.

So it depends on what you want to actually see.

[Scooot]

Mars is at it's closest in April next year, 2014.

Should be visible before that but depending on when you look means it will be further away and so smaller, and it is not that big anyway.

Looking at the little simulator I use I wouldn't think it much point in looking until the start of 2014, try Christmas 13/14, you should see a small red dot but not a lot more. It will improve until April then the distance between us increments again.

So it depends on what you want to actually see.

Great answer thanks. Just shows you need more than a star chart sometimes. Must admit I wasn't really thinking of how well it could be seen when I first responded, I hardly get a good view of it anyway, but learnt something again. so much appreciated.

[mallorcasaint]

Don't know where 2014 came from but I just checked stellarium and it should be visible in the East from mid August around 4 in the morning.

The window is brief due to the early dawn and it will be low in the sky but it gets better later on. Comes very good from November onwards

Think Mallorcasaint is being pessimistic and referring to cloud cover.

I stand by my statement!

[John]

I stand by my statement!

Me too

[bomberbaz]

I stand by my statement!

Me three

[JamesF]

Mars orbits the Sun in a little under two Earth years, so unlike the gas giants whose orbits are so long that we get a chance to see them every year (ish), by the time we get around to a year after the opposition of Mars it's behind the Sun and we have to wait a further year (give or take) for opposition once again.

James

[mallorcasaint]

What he said.