The Moon and Mars will make a pleasant spectacle in the sky tonight.
According to the calendar and almanacs, Monday evening (February 27) brought us the first quarter. It is also sometimes referred to as a “half” moon, although as darkness falls across North America, a close look with binoculars or a small telescope will show that there is little more than half a moon. the sun shines. This is because the actual time of the first quarter usually occurs at the beginning of the day at 3:06 am EST or 12:06 pm PST (0806 GMT).
When it gets really dark, you’ll also notice a bright yellow-orange star appearing in the upper left of the moon. This is not a star, however, but a once-shining planet that continues to shine: Mars. Look for this brightly colored planet in the southwest in the Taurus constellation at sunset and lower in the west as the night grows late.
Related: Night sky, February 2023: What you can see tonight [maps]
Read more: What is the state of the moon today? Lunar Phases 2023
In fact, if you continue to track these two during the night, you will definitely notice that the moon will be slowly creeping towards Mars. From the West Coast, they will appear closest at 9:00 pm (0200 GMT on February 28) while Eastern sky watchers will have to wait until 1:00 am (0600 GMT) on Tuesday morning. , February 28. At present. from Iceland, northern Europe, northern Asia and the Arctic regions will see the moon pass in front of the Red Planet.
Decline and fall
Mars will be prominent throughout the evening, although it will continue to fade slowly over the coming days and weeks as it continues to slowly retreat from Earth. When the moon passes by on Monday, it will be shining at magnitude +0.4, which is slightly dimmer than the yellow-white star Procyon in Canis Minor.
But one month from now, Mars will dim five-tenths of magnitude, to +0.9 (the highest value, the waning factor), making it about the same brightness as Spica, the star of Virgo.
Because Mars came to the eastern quadrature – 90-degrees east of the sun – on March 16, it should now appear perfectly gibbous in even a small telescope every month. Most amateur telescopes can’t resolve every single detail on Mars; in fact, by the end of March the apparent diameter will have decreased to 6.4 seconds, which is about one-third the size Mars appeared to us in late November when it was closest to Earth at a distance of 50.6 million miles (81.4 million). km) to.
In contrast, by the end of March, Mars will move to a distance of 135 million miles (217.3 million kilometers) from us.
The unity of heaven
Also, at this time, its position will be close to the large star cluster M35 in Gemini. On Thursday, March 30, Mars will pass about a degree to the north of the cluster to make for a good view in binoculars.
In the west of North America on April 14, take advantage of a good objective: Mars will pass just 13 minutes – 0.22 degrees – south of the third magnitude star, Mebuta. To give you an idea of how close it is, that’s less than half the width of the moon.
But Mars will also be slowly approaching the “Twin Stars” of Castor and Pollux and will have a wonderful interaction with these brilliant lights in the fourth week of April with the moon and entering the evening of April 25 and 26.
If you’re hoping to see the Moon and Mars in person then our guide to the best telescopes is a good place to start. If you want to spot the pairing between the two, Space.com’s best binoculars guide can help you find the perfect pair.
And if you’re looking to take pictures of the sky, don’t miss our guides on how to take a picture of the moon, the best cameras for taking pictures of the stars and the best lenses for taking pictures of the stars.
Editor’s Note: If you’ve photographed Mars and the Moon and want to share them with Space.com readers, send your photo(s), comments, and your name and location to spacephotos@space.com.
Joe Rao serves as a lecturer and guest lecturer in New York’s Hayden Planetarium (opens in a new tab). He wrote about astronomy for Journal of Natural History (opens in a new tab)and Farmer’s Almanac (opens in a new tab) and other publications. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in a new tab) and on Facebook (opens in a new tab).
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