During the coming week, Mars will be low in the eastern sky after sunset. Later, in the November evenings, Mars will climb high and be seen in the south-eastern direction. Mars will be in opposition to the Sun on November 7th. So it will rise at sunset, be high in the sky at midnight and set in the morning.
Avi Blizovsky
Look east in the coming days right after sunset and you will see a reddish-yellow "star" brighter than the other celestial bodies. This is Mars and it will pass relatively close to Earth in late October and early November 2005. Anyone can see it, even if our knowledge of the stars and planets is not great or how great the light interference from the city is.
During the coming week, Mars will be low in the eastern sky after sunset. Later, in the November evenings, Mars will climb high and be seen in the south-eastern direction. Mars will be in opposition to the Sun on November 7th. So it will rise at sunset, be high in the sky at midnight and set in the morning.
Mars will be at its closest point to the Earth on October 29 (today), when it will pass by us at a distance of 69.4 million kilometers (just over two years ago, on August 27, 2003, it reached the closest distance in the last 60 thousand years - 55.7 million kilometers) M). Mars will look quite large in the weeks before and after the above date.
Only in the summer of 2018 will Mars approach to a shorter distance than this year. Viewers in the latitudes of North America and Europe will have a viewing opportunity like they didn't have then. In 2003 Mars was far in the southern sky and would never rise high enough in the sky for mid-latitude observers, but this time it will be much more northerly and climb much higher in the sky during the night, allowing for a sharper and cleaner view through ground-based telescopes, even amateur ones.
Voila system! The news agencies add that observers equipped with powerful telescopes will be able to distinguish details on the star's face, including its southern ice cap and white clouds above it. The "Hubble" space telescope will also make a special observation of the star and photograph it during its transit, as was also done in 2003.
