Mars at perihelion

Dominic Ford, Editor
From the Outer Planets feed


Objects: Mars

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 Fairfield, at the moment of perihelion it will become visible at around 17:08 (EDT), 20° above your south-western horizon, as dusk fades to darkness. It will then sink towards the horizon, setting 3 hours and 6 minutes after the Sun at 19:30.

A chart of the path of Mars across the sky in 2061 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:

Object Right Ascension Declination Constellation Magnitude Angular Size
Mars 20h45m20s 19°18'S Capricornus 1.1 4.8"

The coordinates above are given in J2000.0.

The sky on 16 Jul 2024

The sky on 16 July 2024
Sunrise
05:31
Sunset
20:23
Twilight ends
22:23
Twilight begins
03:30


Waxing Gibbous

81%

11 days old

Planets
Rise Culm. Set
Mercury 07:47 14:44 21:40
Venus 06:28 13:46 21:04
Moon 16:14 20:56 01:32
Mars 01:40 08:52 16:04
Jupiter 02:28 09:52 17:15
Saturn 22:55 04:36 10:17
All times shown in EDT.

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.

Related news

13 May 2061  –  Mars ends retrograde motion
09 Apr 2063  –  Mars enters retrograde motion
14 May 2063  –  Mars at opposition
22 May 2063  –  Mars at perigee

Image credit

© NASA/Hubble Space Telescope

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