In fact, Mars is looking brighter than we’ve seen it since November 2005. Since Mars and the sun appear on opposite sides of the sky, we say that Mars is in “opposition”.
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The red planet will be unusually bright in the night sky from dusk through the evening as it reaches a point in its orbit called “opposition”. The same thing happens to planets. We don’t often describe it this way, but the moon will be in opposition too.
Thursday and Friday evening, Mars rises around 8:25 p.m. The planet will be in opposition, or directly opposite the sun, which means it’ll be rising in the east as the sun is setting in the west.
You’ll notice the pleasantly plump, waxing gibbous moon ahead of Mars tonight.
Stargazers will get a treat for the rest of this month as Mars making its closest approach to Earth on May 30.
On May 21, Saturn will move close to the full moon, with the red lights of Mars and the star Antares nearby. The blue moon will occur between the March 2016 equinox and June 2016 solstice.
And not to be left out, the full moon passes through this patch of sky from Saturday to Monday, May 21-23. About every three years there is a 13th full moon. It happens about every three years; the last occurrence was in August 2013, and the next will be in May 2019. “You shouldn’t have too much trouble spotting him as he is now nearly as bright as Jupiter and has a very distinctive ruddy tint”, Chester wrote. “The faint dusky features you see are actual surface features, not the tops of clouds in an atmosphere”.
Opposition brings a planet closest to Earth, but not every opposition is as favourable as another. That’s why Congress gave NASA enough money to send two Mars rovers – Spirit and Opportunity – to explore the planet in 2004.
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It’s quite a favourable opposition this year, although the next opposition of Mars in July 2018 will be even better.
