Mars now appears about 6' across, so discerning surface features is difficult unless you’re experienced with high-speed video capture. It lies near one foot of Gemini the Twins, about 3° due north of Propus (Eta Geminorum). About an hour after sunset, you’ll find the Red Planet roughly 60° high in the west and shining at magnitude 0.9. Mars lies directly above (northeast of) open cluster M35 in Gemini this evening. The Moon’s illumination is given at 12 P.M. *Times for sunrise, sunset, moonrise, and moonset are given in local time from 40° N 90° W. The cluster is rising after sunset and highest overnight. The former will show it as a fuzzy patch of light, while the latter should start to resolve myriad suns around its edges, with more appearing the larger your aperture.Ĭontaining tens of thousands of stars, M3 spans nearly 20' on the sky, with a dense center just over 1' wide. That’s okay - binoculars or a telescope will easily reveal the dense ball of stars. At magnitude 6.2, the cluster may be just at the edge of naked-eye vision from a dark site, though tonight’s bright Moon may dash your chances of spotting it. Located in Canes Venatici, you’ll find it about halfway between the Hunting Dogs’ alpha star, Cor Caroli, and Arcturus (Alpha Boötis) in the Herdsman. Once the sky has darkened and you’ve had a chance to enjoy the planetary parade, turn your attention to the finest globular cluster the spring sky has to offer: M3. Meanwhile, ruddy Mars still flies high in the sky, up above the V-shaped constellation Taurus. Its dim, tiny disk will pop out more readily as darkness falls.Ĭloser to the horizon, Mercury (10° high 20 minutes after sunset) and Jupiter (3° high 20 minutes after sunset) are still visible, if briefly.

Let the sky darken just a little, then pull out binoculars or a telescope and look to the planet’s south (lower left) for magnitude 5.9 Uranus. Around sunset, you’ll easily spot magnitude –4 Venus some 30° high in the west. The two planets are visible in the evening, still less than 2° apart. It will then sit 251,605 miles (404,919 kilometers) away.Ī few hours earlier, Venus passes 1.3° north of Uranus at 2 A.M. The Moon reaches apogee, the farthest point from Earth in its orbit, at 7:17 A.M.

Optical glow red giant