 |
| Mars remains well placed
around 8:00 PM on the night of October 25, about 35 degrees above the horizon
in the southeast. The red planet is still easy to find, although
it is smaller in apparent size and not so bright as it was at its closest
approach, currently 16 arcseconds and -1.4 mag versus 25 arcsec and -2.9
mag in late August. Mars is now about 54 million miles from the earth
versus about 35 million at its closest approach, thus accounting for its
decrease in apparent size and brightness.
Uranus, shining at mag 5.8, is now about 7 deg east of Mars. Uranus is a naked-eye object under reasonably good conditions – reasonably good vision, and a clear, dark sky. We should be able to find this blue-green planet fairly easily, clouds and weather permitting, although it subtends a visual angle less than 4 arcseconds. Neptune is now about 20 deg south of Uranus. At a distance of nearly 6 billion miles, and shining at mag 7.9, Neptune is a more challenging objects. But we’ll try! It’s blue-green color helps set it apart from the stars. Besides the three planets, above, there’s a whole host of other objects to see. So y’all come! |
You can print a copy of this star chart so you can take it outside.
|
|
|
|