Mars is back...

[Walshie79]

The two Aldebarans low in the west this evening had me puzzled for a while! Worked out the second must be a planet, it's too long after sunset for Mercury, not bright enough for Venus, Jupiter and Saturn are down by Sagittarius. Mars? Didn't it disappear into the evening twilight a couple of months ago down by Aquarius/Pisces?

Its weird movements as it moves away from Earth, gets caught up and left behind, varying massively in brightness and speed through the zodiac have done it again. It's come back into the *evening* sky as it's quickly moved north of the Sun through the equinox. 

 

 

[cletrac1922]

Next door neighbours have her parents currently out from England

Dragged out the 10" Dob saturday night

From where I am, Mars was setting just after twilight, western horizon

Both Orion and Aldebaran was over head

Trying to work out what the red star is north east of Rigel, viewed from Southern Hemisphere

 

John

 

[mikeDnight]

9 hours ago, Walshie79 said:

The two Aldebarans low in the west this evening had me puzzled for a while! Worked out the second must be a planet, it's too long after sunset for Mercury, not bright enough for Venus, Jupiter and Saturn are down by Sagittarius. Mars? Didn't it disappear into the evening twilight a couple of months ago down by Aquarius/Pisces?

Its weird movements as it moves away from Earth, gets caught up and left behind, varying massively in brightness and speed through the zodiac have done it again. It's come back into the *evening* sky as it's quickly moved north of the Sun through the equinox. 

 

 

I thought we'd lost it too, but I had a great view of it last night as it was high in the west. I managed to make three sketches of its albedo features to try and confirm what I was seeing The more I viewed its 4.5 arc second disc, the more certain the features became. Amazing!