Look at the cozy moon to Mars, which is declining on March 8th

On Saturdays, the moon is discovered as it waxes.

All phases month After 29.5 days or more, wax casts are probably the most frequently observed. The word gibbs comes from the Latin word Gibbsliterally means “hump.” It’s certainly a rare word, but it’s very correct when describing the current shape of the moon.

On this particular occasion, almost three-quarters of the moon’s disks (74% to be precise) are illuminated. solar. And the moon becomes apparent well before sunset. It rises around noon and is clearly visible in the eastern part of the late afternoon sky by 4pm, maintaining visibility until almost a break at dawn the following morning.

The moon joins a planet and two stars

Once it gets dark enough, you will notice a rather bright yellow orange star that appears just below the moon. But it is not a star, but a once shining planet, and its brightness continues to decrease: Mars. As you grow into late night, look for this colorful world at dusk and southeasterly heights of West Southwest. At this moment it will form Conspicuous triangle With two bright stars nearby, caster and Pollux, in Constellations Gemini. Echoing his classics “Stars – A New Way to See them”:

“If the moon and planets are close to Casters and Pollux, you have an impressive show.”

From our terrestrial perspective, the moon and Mars It appears closest to each other around 8pm in the eastern part, with Mars sliding about 1.2 degrees under the lower limbs of the moon. Since the moon is about half the size, you would think that Mars would have more than two moon widths from the lower limbs of the moon. However, the moon is an optical illusion, the size of the actual angle – because it appears to be twice as large as the moon and planets.

As Mars retreats. . . That brightness declines

Mars remains prominent all night despite the fact that it continues to slowly fade over days and weeks as it slowly pulls away from Earth. When the month passes it on Saturday, it still shines with a very respectable magnitude -0.1. arcturus In Boutes, it is the fourth brightest star in the sky. But back in January, Mars was almost in line with each other. Siriusthe brightest of all stars. Currently, Mars is only a third of bright glow.

However, by the end of March, as a direct result of the recession from Earth – an average of 583,000 miles (939,000 km) per day – Mars had declined by a fifth. Size+0.4 (higher values ​​make the object pretend), approximately equal to the yellow white propion, the brightest star of the canis. By then, its position has changed, so rather than forming a triangle with pollux and casters, it forms a curved line.

On April 12th, Mars leaves the Gemini boundary and has been around since the second week of January, moving to the constellations of the crab cancer constellations.

Mars soon comes to the eastern quadratic system, 90 degrees east of the Sun on April 20th, so even a very small telescope can clearly look Gibbs. By then, most amateur telescopes have not provided substantial details about Mars. In fact, by the end of April, its apparent diameter would be reduced to 6.6 arc seconds. This is less than half the size that appeared to us in the middle of January, 59.5 million miles (95.7 million km) away. In contrast, by April 30th, Mars will retreat to a distance of 132 million miles (212.4 million km) from the United States.

If you’re looking for a telescope or binoculars night skyour guide and our best binocular trading, and now the best telescope trading will help. The best cameras for astrophotography and the best lenses for astrophotography will help you prepare to capture your next stunning skywatching event.

Joe Rao is a New York instructor and guest lecturer Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy Natural History Magazine, Farmer’s Yearbook Other publications. Follow us on Twitter @spacedotcom And on Facebook