MARTIAN OPPOSITION
Wednesday 15 January from 8pm to 12am CST
No admission fee. For all ages.
Binocular recommended.
Every twenty-six months the planet Earth catches up to the planet Mars, which orbits the Sun more slowly. As this happens, Mars rises earlier in the night sky and increases in angular size. The apparent diameter of Mars will exceed 14.5” as the Red Planet shines in Gemini at magnitude -1.38!
The waning gibbous Moon (in Cancer) will be thirteen-and-a-half degrees from Mars at 8pm; this distance will grow to over fifteen degrees by midnight.
OTHER VISIBLE OBJECTS
8pm to midnight = Jupiter
8:15pm to midnight = Pleiades
8:30pm to midnight = Orion Nebula
8:45pm to midnight = Christmas Tree Cluster
9pm to midnight = Andromeda Galaxy
9:15pm to midnight = Uranus