The great Mars Show

Charlie Ridgway, one of the regular Central Park sky watchers, just sent a reminder about the great Mars show now playing in your local... firmament.


MARS IS CLOSEST TO EARTH

This Saturday night, October 29th, Mars passes its closest to Earth for the next 13 years. But for all practical purposes it's already just as close and will remain so for another two or three weeks. See our article:



Take advantage of every clear night to get your telescope on Mars! It's
well up in the east by late evening, far outshining any other point of
light in the sky. An observing guide to Mars, with maps to identify
surface features, is in the September SKY & TELESCOPE, page 67.

You can also try for the planet's two tiny moons, Phobos and Deimos; see
the October issue, page 59.