Mars's 687-day orbit around the Sun will carry it to its closest point to the Sun – its perihelion – at a distance of 1.38 AU.

Unlike most of the planets, which follow almost exactly circular orbits around the Sun which only vary in their distance from the Sun by a few percent, Mars has a significantly elliptical orbit. Its distance from the Sun varies between 1.38 AU and 1.67 AU – a variation of over 20% – meaning that it receives 31% less heat and light from the Sun at aphelion as compared to perihelion.

Finding Mars

Mars's distance from the Sun doesn't affect its appearance. From Cambridge, at the moment of perihelion it will be visible in the morning sky, becoming accessible around 23:40, when it reaches an altitude of 7° above your eastern horizon. It will then reach its highest point in the sky at 05:10, 51° above your southern horizon. It will be lost to dawn twilight around 05:17, 51° above your southern horizon.

A chart of the path of Mars across the sky in 2020 can be found here, and a chart of its rising and setting times here.

The position of Mars at the moment it passes perihelion will be:

The coordinates above are given in J2000.0.

The sky on 3 Aug 2020

Source

The circumstances of this event were computed using the DE430 planetary ephemeris published by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

This event was automatically generated by searching the ephemeris for planetary alignments which are of interest to amateur astronomers, and the text above was generated based on an estimate of your location.

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Image credit

© NASA/Hubble Space Telescope

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