When will be the next opportunity to see Mars?

[pipnina]

Looking at stellarium I'm not sure when the next Mars opposition is, or if its orbit is too close to earths and we only get a chance to see it (at non-rediculous times of the morning) every x number of years.

I seem to remember a conjunction between mars and venus a few months back, just as I started this hobby, how far past opposition was that?

    ~pip

[fondofchips]

Will be observable from the middle of August in the morning.  Have a look at 'Mobile Observatory' app, only available on Android though.

Clear Skies,

Fondofchips.

[Ouroboros]

July 2018 looks best overall. http://www.iceinspace.com.au/planetopp.html

There's a nice conjunction between Mars, Jupiter and Venus in the early morning of 29 October this year.

[Pete Presland]

Looks like opposition in 2016 is going to be a little like Saturn this year, not very high in the sky so afected by the poor atmosperic condions.

[pipnina]

July 2018 looks best overall. http://www.iceinspace.com.au/planetopp.html

There's a nice conjunction between Mars, Jupiter and Venus in the early morning of 29 October this year.

Looks like opposition in 2016 is going to be a little like Saturn this year, not very high in the sky so afected by the poor atmosperic condions.

So does this mean I'm going to have to wait until 2018 to see it at its best? Oh well, that gives me plenty of time to save up for a better scope at least.

[Ouroboros]

Other planets are available! :-)

[Paul73]

Mars can sometimes be a bit of a disappointment after Jupiter and Saturn. So I wouldn't worry overly.

The triple close grouping in Oct should be worth viewing.

Paul

[ronin]

I was looking at a simulator last night and it looks like Mars will start to be "reasonable" at the start of 2016 getting better until what looks like 21-May-2016 then it gets further away as we pass it.

No idea how high it ever gets this time.

The next closest pass will then be end of July 2018, so get prepared for 2016.

[Geordie mc]

Think I read it will pass through the Beehive Cluster sometime in August as an early morning object and very low.

[LukeSkywatcher]

In my opinion Mars is so over-rated. Ive looked at it at different times in different scopes and was never impressed.

About 4 yrs ago i got a great view of it and saw lots of surface detail. That lasted about 5 seconds. Best view i ever had of mars was naked eye from the Sahara in southern Tunisia when it was at opposition. I think that was about 15 yrs ago.

[Stu]

Mars is a tricky customer, at its worst it is nothing more than a small featureless orange disk. At its best, I find the level of detail amazing, polar caps, dark surface markings and frosting for instance.

The difference in distance between closest approach and farthest is large, as are the range of apparent disk sizes, a much bigger variance than say Jupiter or Saturn.

This is Mars now:

This is Mars at the May 21st Opposition, at the same scale:

This is it at the July 27th 2018 Opposition:

The problem as highlighted before is that it is at a low altitude for both the 2016 and 2018 oppositions, 11 degrees then 13 degrees. The next good one looks like 2020, when it is at nearly 45 degrees, much better.

To get good views, you need the planet to be well positioned with excellent seeing, a well cooled and collimated scope with good optics operating at high power, up to x250 or more is useful to pull out the detail. I find a Baader Neodymium filter works well on Mars too.

Plenty of time to plan and get your kit sorted though

Stu

[pipnina]

Mars is a tricky customer, at its worst it is nothing more than a small featureless orange disk. At its best, I find the level of detail amazing, polar caps, dark surface markings and frosting for instance.

The difference in distance between closest approach and farthest is large, as are the range of apparent disk sizes, a much bigger variance than say Jupiter or Saturn.

This is Mars now:

-snip-

This is Mars at the May 21st Opposition, at the same scale:

-snip

This is it at the July 27th 2018 Opposition:

-snip-

The problem as highlighted before is that it is at a low altitude for both the 2016 and 2018 oppositions, 11 degrees then 13 degrees. The next good one looks like 2020, when it is at nearly 45 degrees, much better.

-snip-

To get good views, you need the planet to be well positioned with excellent seeing, a well cooled and collimated scope with good optics operating at high power, up to x250 or more is useful to pull out the detail. I find a Baader Neodymium filter works well on Mars too.

Plenty of time to plan and get your kit sorted though

Stu

Indeed, there is certainly a lot of time between now and 2018. Thanks for the info, appreciate it!