Mars will be at its closest point to Earth for 11 years on Monday, in a rare treat for astronomy fans.
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Chris Arkless, of the Launceston Planetarium, said it is well worth getting out into the chilly Tasmanian night to catch a glimpse of the Red Planet.
“In the early evening it’s a little bit South East, it’s the very bright, reddish object, and there is also a bright object down below and to the right which is Saturn, and both of them are very close to the constellation of Scorpius,” he said.
“Also in Scorpius, the brightest star is called Antares and that’s a red supergiant star... they do at times look very similar, but Mars at the moment because it is particularly close to the Earth is much brighter than Antares.”
Mr Arkless said Mars was also in opposition on Sunday, which means it lined up exactly with the Earth and the Sun.
“We go round the Sun in one year, and Mars is going around in roughly two of our years, so we overtake Mars every couple of years and that’s what's happening now, we're overtaking,” he said.
“Because planets don't orbit in circles, they’re ellipses, sometime when we overtake is when the Earth is a bit further away from the Sun and Mars is a bit closer to the Sun, and the distance can change quite significantly.”
Measured in astronomical units, which is the average distance from the Earth to the Sun, Mars will be just 0.51 units away. Mr Arkless said while it is close, in 2003 Mars was the closest it's ever been at 0.3728 units.
”Look at it over a period of nights and you’ll see that Mars is quite obviously moving against the background stars from one week to another,” he said.