Family stargazing

Mars is bright and now rather obvious as it rises in the east. Colours in astronomy are often subtle so this month, as Mars starts to get bright, ask your young observers to describe its colour. If you have a set of coloured pencils or pens, ask them to pick the colour that most closely matches it. Alternatively, if you have access to a computer with a graphics program, ask them to select the colour they saw using this. The colour is often described as being close to salmon-pink and occurs because the Martian surface has a lot of iron-oxide; Mars is basically rusty! www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/shows/stargazing