Big Full Moon and Mars Put on a Show Friday Night

By Nancy Atkinson - January 28, 2010 at 3:50 PM UTC | Planetary Science
2010_01_27_Moon.jpg

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If your skies are clear on Friday night, January 29, 2010, take advantage of one of the skywatching highlights of the year. A full

Moon and Mars

will be putting on a show, and the pair will be prominently close to each other in the sky. Plus, this Friday night's full Moon is the biggest and brightest full Moon of the year. It's a "perigee Moon," as much as 14% wider and 30% brighter than other full Moons you'll see later in 2010, according to

Spaceweather.com.

And, even though you've likely

not

gotten an email from an excited acquaintance relaying that Mars is really close to the Earth now --- that is the case. Mars is at opposition on the 29th, which means it lines up opposite the Sun and is now the closest to Earth their orbits, and so will shine brighter.

The image above of the not-quite-full Moon from January 27, 2010 is shared by Universe Today reader Alan Walters, from Florida. You can see more of his wonderful photography of the night sky, launches and shuttle landings, Florida wildlife and more at

Alan Walters Photography

.

[caption id="attachment_52739" align="alignnone" width="580" caption="Positions of the Moon and Mars. Credit: McDonald Observatory"]

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This image, courtesy of

Stardate Online and the McDonald Observatory

, shows the positions of the Moon and Mars in the night sky the next few evenings.

This is not a great opposition for Mars because it occurs around the time that Earth is closest to the Sun and Mars is farthest. The gap between the two planets will be a hefty 62 million miles (99 million km). The smallest possible distance at opposition is about 35 million miles (56 million km), which happened a back in August of 2003, and prompted the

infamous emails that now surface every August

, that Mars would be as big the full Moon, which of course, is not -- and was not -- true. Mars appeared more than twice as bright then as it will this year, but was still a star-like dot in the sky.

JPL is sponsoring a Facebook Event,

Friday Night With the Moon and Mars

, to heighten awareness of what a great sight it will be; plus its a great way to share in the experience with others online.

And for more information, see this

Science@NASA article

about the close encounter.

Sources:

Stardate

,

Spaceweather.com

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com