Mars' recent celestial path

Event Date: April 27th
Time: 8:00 PM

Brief

As I continue the planet position-to-horizon updates, Mars will come next.  Now that the red planet is moving again in prograde motion, it will start to move and an increasing rate from one zodiacal constellation to the next.  As we move further from Mars in our orbit, this illusion of movement is noticeable.  Here is a plot of the celestial path of Mars since it resumed prograde about two weeks ago.  The increment markers are changed to 1 day instead of my usual 10, to show the increase in spacing.  I also magnified Mars and the path so the markers are not so squeezed.

click on image to enlarge: courtesy of Starry Night Pro Plus, version 6.4.3, by Simulation Curriculum Corp.

Detailed

 Between now and late winter of next year, Mars will also approach perihelion.  As a result of this, despite dimming to an unattractive "spot" in the sky by late this season, we will see Mars stop dimming a few months before conjunction.  This doesn't mean much for viewing it, although since Mars continues to move faster in prograde, it will remain separated enough from the Sun to beable to view easily.  Eventually, as we have seen with the Sun over the last 6 weeks since I started this blog, the evening twilight time will grow, and eventually the Sun will catch up enough with Mars that we will once again lose it from our sight for about four months.  The next opposition of Mars with the Sun, which happened in early March for this year, will be April 8th, 2014.  Until that time, despite the dimming, try to view Mars high in the sky during twilight time, as the planet still rises a little less than four minutes earlier each day.  As it picks up in prograde, this gap between rise times will shrink a little.  By the time that Mars is moving only a little faster than the Sun west to east against the stars, shortly before conjunction, it will set about the same time every evening, after the Sun.