If you can find a nice clear sky this week you will get to see a nice reddish ball in the sky, the planet Mars.
Chris Curwin of Astronomy By The Bay, in Saint John, New Brunswick tells our newsroom, we are having a very close encounter with our neighbour which this week is about 57.6 million kilometres away.
” We passed what’s called opposition just a couple of days ago on July 27th, when Mars and Earth were in line. With Mars elliptical orbit it takes us a day or so to catch up. We are going to be seeing Mars at its largest we’ve seen it now since 2003,” says Curwin.
If you have a telescope or a good pair of binoculars you should be able to get a nice view and it is very easy to spot in the sky.
Curwin says “Look for Mars to the right of the moon, the moon is actually coming up to third quarter phase so it’s a nice object to take a look at and compare it against. If you look off to the southern sky there is another bright object which is the planet Saturn and Mars and it’s off to the left of Saturn at the moment.”
You can also find apps on your phone or use a program called Stellarium for your laptop to help you enjoy the wonders of the night sky. Coming up in mid-August will be another stellar showcase the annual Perseid meteor showers.
