Mars low, near crescent Moon

Event Date: January 13th

Time: 6:00 PM

Brief

   Believe it or not, Mars is still an evening target in the sky, over 10 months since its March opposition.  Last month, I stayed busy with Mars by plotting its celestial and local paths, which I still plan to do tomorrow.  For today, however, let's show the planet near the waxing, crescent Moon, which each day this week gets significantly further north of the Sun; I will display it at first quarter 5 entries from now.  While only a small sliver yesterday, our satellite was visible for a short while in evening twilight, for if your sky was clear.  As for this evening, it is much more visible, now at 7% illuminated, and not setting until 2 hours, 42 minutes after the Sun as seen from latitude 38º-- about the average length of a major league baseball game.  

   The first image shows both with no celestial guidelines and orbits, while the second includes those, to further remind the reader that Mars and the Moon are more north of our Sun.

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

Detailed

  Sometimes we can not still easily see Mars this long afterwards.  However, the geometry of the west-southwestern evening sky is nearing its best over the next 40-50 days, depending on the exact altitude of what we look for after Sunset.  In Mars' case, it is +1.2 in magnitude, which is slightly "brighter" than it was back in the fall.  One reason for that, is because the planet has slowly approached perihelion over the last few months.  That, while moving further from us towards the other side of the Sun.  Since we have slightly more light being reflected towards us, with Mars a little closer to the Sun, that has kept the magnitude from getting dimmer.  As for setting, seen from the aforementioned latitude in the brief, Mars  sets 1 hour, 40 minutes later, which still gives us a little time to see it with the unaided eye.  Remember that as each day passes however, Mars dips a little closer to behind the Sun, while the Sun sets a little more north and later; the combination of this leads to a washed-out Mars by the end of the month, so catch it now, or very soon while you still are able to.