Mars at eastern quadrature in late March 2008
3 comments Print Me Email to FriendTonight's Sky for Friday, Mar 28 2008
If you can spot the constellation Orion the Hunter in your southwest sky this evening, you should have little trouble locating the planet Mars. Simply draw a line from Rigel and up through Betelgeuse, and go twice the distance. That red-looking star above Orion is actually Mars.
Tomorrow night, Mars reaches eastern quadrature, this term referring to any any heavenly body that resides 90 degrees east of the sun. Because the sun reaches its highest point in the sky at midday (noon), any heavenly body that’s at eastern quadrature reaches its highest point in the sky 6 hours after the midday sun.
Incidentally, the moon reaches eastern quadrature every month at first quarter moon. At first quarter phase, we see half of the moon’s daylight side and half of its nighttime side. Since Mars will be at eastern quadrature tomorrow night, can we expect Mars to look like the first quarter moon through a telescope? The answer is no.
Unlike the moon, Mars shows its “thinnest” phase when at quadrature. Even so, Mars will still look roly-poly through a telescope, like the waxing gibbous moon. Presently, the red planet exhibits about 90% of its daylight side and 10% of its nighttime side.
I am totally looking forward to seeing this. Orion’s belt is the first thing I spot whenever I look at the stars so this should be easy for me to find. Thanks
same here.
Perfect spacing and evenness.
I live in a rural part of South Texas so if the sky is clear I will have a great view. I showed the navigation diagram to my students and hopefully they will go out this evening and take a look, too. one of these days I might make it out to the George Obsevatory at Brazos Bend Park for a stellar close-up.