This month’s planets

The Red Planet reaches opposition this month and, providing you’re in the right place, you’ll be able to catch a wealth of its surface detail

Finally, after taking what has felt like an eternity, this month Mars reaches opposition! A planet is said to be at opposition when it is directly opposite the Sun in the sky, and because this opposition of Mars coincides with a relatively close approach of Mars to the Earth, astronomers all around the world have been looking forward to this month all year, impatient to see Mars looking bigger and brighter in the sky than it has for many years.

Unfortunately, because of its current position along the ecliptic in the constellation of Capricornus, Mars will not climb very high in the sky during this opposition. Instead it will hug the horizon, further diminishing our view. The sky won’t get very dark either because of the time of year. All that means Mars won’t appear as bright this July as you might expect a magnitude -2.7 object to appear.

Of course, if you really want to get the best out of this Martian opposition you could jump on a plane and head south to a country where Mars will shine at a higher altitude; stargazers in Australia and New Zealand will be able to see Mars blazing overhead – and in a dark, winter sky too. But wherever you will be, this month’s sky absolutely belongs to Mars, and you should make a special effort to get out and see it. It will be easily visible to the naked eye from the back gardens of towns and cities, looking like a bright ‘star’ low in the southern sky.

However, if you can get away from all the clutter and streetlights out to somewhere in the countryside with a low, flat southern horizon and no light pollution, you will be hypnotised by the beauty of Mars. It will be a very striking sight, visible to the naked eye as soon as the sky starts to darken after sunset, and as twilight deepens it will get brighter and brighter until it dominates that part of the sky. Although it won’t burn with the fiery red colour many people expect, it will be a very obvious orange colour, and if you have binoculars or a telescope they will enhance its beautiful colour tremendously.

Although not as bright as others have been, this month’s opposition will offer something quite amazing. On the evening of 27 July, the date of opposition, Mars will appear close to the Moon in the sky – at the same time as the next total lunar eclipse. Observers across much of the world will thrill at the sight of bright-orange Mars shining close to a copperor blood-red Moon. In the UK Mars and the already fully eclipsed Moon will rise close together, making a stunning pairing in the late evening sky, and a great target for astrophotographers.