dipper@utastro.UUCP (Debbie Byrd) (05/20/85)
The moon may help you get a last glimpse of Mars Monday or Tuesday. More -- after this. May 20 Mars and the Moon The red desert world Mars orbits the sun just one step outward from our world. Because Mars is farther from the sun, it moves more slowly in orbit than we do -- and, for some months, Mars has been falling behind Earth in orbit. As a result, Mars has been in pretty much the same spot -- in the west after sunset -- not moving much in our sky -- but appearing fainter as the distance between the two worlds increases. But now Mars is about to disappear from our western sky -- because it has fallen so far behind Earth in orbit around the sun that it's on the other side of the solar system -- with the sun about to come between us and it. We won't see Mars much longer in the evening sky -- but you can try to glimpse it this week -- especially Monday or Tuesday evening -- when Mars will be near the crescent moon in the west after sunset. It'll be harder to see the moon Monday evening than Tuesday. Either day, you'll need a clear sky all the way to the western horizon. The moon will appear low in the west shortly after the sun goes down -- with Mars just above the moon Monday evening -- and just below it Tuesday. It happens that many bright stars also appear in the west after sunset at this time of year. Either Monday or Tuesday evening, Mars and the moon will be surrounded by a great arc of stars -- Betelgeuse, Sirius, Castor, Pollux, and Capella. It should be a pretty sight. Script by Deborah Byrd. (c) Copyright 1984, 1985 McDonald Observatory, University of Texas at Austin