Full Moon & Mars

Sully

It's a beautiful evening here in Tramore and as I look out the window I can see a full bright full moon and what I gather is Mars a fair distance under the moon. A bright red light. A shame a picture can't show how much a beautiful sight it is, in fairness!

A quick Google pointed me in this direction; http://earthsky.org/tonight so I assume it's what I am seeing tonight!

The One Doctor

Nope, it's a comet headed for your house.

Duck.

Slydice

Skys just cleared here in Dublin.

BEAUTIFUL!

Big red glowing Mars!

Slydice

Hard to get a photo but here's something

shedweller

Good job slydice! I just had a look now and mars is particularly bright. The air is reasonably still so the disc of mars is readily apparent. Any details on the surface are beyond the...ahem....scope of my wallet.
Still though, its a very nice evening for it!

uck51js9zml2yt

Tried staying up last night but it was getting to late by the time Mars appeared over the roof line

coylemj

Mars was at opposition on May 22nd so this will be the best time to see it until the next opposition which will be in July 2018.

uck51js9zml2yt

coylemj wrote: »

Mars was at opposition on May 22nd so this will be the best time to see it until the next opposition which will be in July 2018.

Will it be rising any earlier? 3 am is just too late for me;(

ps200306

Oaklyn Miniature Caribou wrote: »

Will it be rising any earlier? 3 am is just too late for me;(

Are you sure you're looking at the right thing? Mars is currently at its highest directly south at about 01:10. It's getting earlier every night. By the time it rubs shoulders with the next full moon on Jun 18th it will be culminating just after 23:00, only shortly after it gets dark enough to see it. Unfortunately the ecliptic is low in the sky on summer nights so Mars skirts low to the horizon and doesn't get above 16 degrees altitude or so.

coylemj

Oaklyn Miniature Caribou wrote: »

Tried staying up last night but it was getting to late by the time Mars appeared over the roof line

Oaklyn Miniature Caribou wrote: »

Will it be rising any earlier? 3 am is just too late for me;(

Mars currently rises at 21:00 and is due south at 01:00 when it has reached it's highest position in the sky, it then descends and it sets at 05:00. All local (UTC+1) times.

It's the exact opposite of what happens the sun at this time of the year so anything that's directly opposite the sun in May/June/July (as Mars is in 2016) won't be above the horizon for very long and will not climb very high in the night sky. The same applies to the full moon and by coincidence there will be a full moon on June 20th, the date of the summer solstice in 2016 so that full moon will be very low in the sky when it's due south at 01:04.

Slydice

I saw it last night around midnight. Looking south sounds right.

uck51js9zml2yt

ps200306 wrote: »

Are you sure you're looking at the right thing? Mars is currently at its highest directly south at about 01:10. It's getting earlier every night. By the time it rubs shoulders with the next full moon on Jun 18th it will be culminating just after 23:00, only shortly after it gets dark enough to see it. Unfortunately the ecliptic is low in the sky on summer nights so Mars skirts low to the horizon and doesn't get above 16 degrees altitude or so.

I'll need to knock all the houses around me down by the looks of things....or maybe raise the legs on my tripod

ps200306

Oaklyn Miniature Caribou wrote: »

I'll need to knock all the houses around me down by the looks of things....or maybe raise the legs on my tripod

You need one of those machines from War of the Worlds. You'd be able to knock down houses, have a huge tripod, and actually be Martian. :pac:

uck51js9zml2yt

ps200306 wrote: »

You need one of those machines from War of the Worlds. You'd be able to knock down houses, have a huge tripod, and actually be Martian. :pac:

Lengthening the legs on my tripod will probably do:D

Slydice

Todays the day
http://mars.nasa.gov/allaboutmars/nightsky/mars-close-approach/

It's up there bright and shiny right now. Here's a photo I just took: