Footage captured by Nanaimo Astronomy Society president Chris Boar reveals surface details of Mars, including ice caps on the south end of the image. (Chris Boar)

By Ian Holmes

eyes in the sky

‘Blazingly bright’ Mars rotating at closest point to Earth

Oct 6, 2020 | 4:42 PM

NANAIMO — Mars is orbiting at its closest point to earth this week, providing an extra incentive to check out the night sky.

VIU astronomy professor Dr. Greg Arkos said while Mars is still about 60 million kilometers away and a third of Earth’s size, it is now much larger and brighter than usual.

“It’s hard to miss, if you’re looking anywhere in the southeast to southwest sky anytime during the night and you see anything really blazingly bright red, it’s probably Mars.”

Dr. Arkos said the last time we were this close to Mars was 2003 and we won’t be this close again until 2035.

“Mars takes about two years to go around the sun and as a result Earth is faster and we catch up to it every couple of years.”

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He said Mars is now slowly beginning to fade back, but said the planet will still provide prime viewing opportunities for the next several weeks.

Arkos said three international space missions in the coming months are taking advantage of Mars’ close proximately to Earth, which he said should produce valuable new images of the planet.

Nanaimo Astronomy Society president Chris Boar has taken a video time lapse of Mars available on the group’s Facebook page.

He said now is a unique opportunity to capture surface details of Mars which you can enjoy with quality telescope in the $400 to $500 range.

“Such as the south pole, which is frozen carbon dioxide. In some of the video you can see actual clouds moving across the surface. It’s quite amazing you can see clouds on another planet,” Boar said.

He said Jupiter and Saturn are also visible in the southern portion of the sky.

It has been an active year in the overnight sky with the Neowise comet phenomenon gaining the attention of space buffs in addition to the annual Perseids meteor shower.

ian@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @reporterholmes.