View Single Post
  #22  
Old 04-02-2010, 08:29 AM
pgc hunter's Avatar
pgc hunter
Registered User

pgc hunter is offline
 
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Renmark, SA
Posts: 2,993
Mars is too low to see much detail, plus it is at a "poor" opposition, with the maximum size of the disc this year at just 14.10"

We'll have to wait until July 2018 for a perihelic opposition where the disc will reach 24.3" and the planet will be almost directly overhead in Capricornus at -25 declination to boot!

Btw, in that same month Saturn and Jupiter will be visible high in the sky in Sagittarius and Libra respectively at the same time with Saturn's rings fully open plus Venus will be a fixture in the evening sky aswell! July 2018 will be a southern Hemisphere planetary observer's wet dream

Interesting fact - all Perihelic oppositions of Mars occur with the planet south of the celestial equator, while all poor oppositions occur in the north.
Reply With Quote