Since March I’ve been getting frequent inquiries about a bright red “star” in the low southwest sky just before morning twilight.

Lately I’ve also heard about a really bright red “star” rising in the southeast shortly after sunset. In both cases it’s no star, but Mars, one of the next door neighbors in our solar system named after the Roman god of war.

Every 25 months Mars and Earth make a close pass as they both orbit the sun in their respective orbits. This is called in opposition, as you can see in the diagram.

It takes more than two years for this to happen because while it only takes Earth a little more than 365 days to make a complete orbit around the sun, it takes Mars 687 days.

Mars is constantly trying to catch up to be in line with the Earth. Every 780 days it does, and we get up close and personal to with the red planet.

Another benefit of opposition is that Mars is available for us to see all night, rising at sunset and setting at sunrise.

Some oppositions are closer than others, however. That’s because the orbits of Mars and Earth are not exactly circular, but more elliptical or oval-shaped.

Earth and Mars both have a maximum distance from the sun in the course of their orbits. The maximum distance is referred to as aphelion and the minimum distance is called perihelion.

If opposition occurs when Earth is at its aphelion and Mars is at perihelion then the separation between the two planets is at its minimum, and Mars gets super big and bright in our sky. That doesn’t happen very often though.

That was the case, however, back in 2003 when Earth and Mars were separated by only 34.6 million miles. It was the closest Earth and Mars had been in 60,000 years.

This weekend Mars is a little farther away at more than 41 million miles, but it is the closest it’s been since 2005. During the next opposition, in late July of 2018, Mars will be nearly as close as it was in 2003 at 35.8 million miles.

As close and bright as Mars is right now, and will be for the next month or so, it’s still hard to see a lot of detail with a telescope, even with larger scopes.

Mars is only half the diameter of Earth at 4,000 miles and it’s still more than 41 million miles away.

Adding to the Martian telescope observing challenge this spring and early summer is that it will take a fairly low arc across the sky through the course of the night. It’s presently situated among the southern backdrop constellation Scorpius the Scorpion, which never gets all that high in our sky, especially in the northern U.S.

Since Mars is “flying low” as it moves from the southeast to southwest every night, we’re forced to observe it through more of Earth’s blurring atmosphere that’s thicker from our viewpoint near the horizon than it is overhead. Mars will appear extra fuzzy when it first rises, but the view will be a little less murky until about 10:30 to 11 p.m.

You’ll need patience and persistence observing Mars through any telescope. Viewing conditions can vary from night to night. Not only do you need clear skies but you also need a fairly still, nonturbulent atmosphere between you and Mars.

Strong winds aloft can certainly murk up the seeing conditions. If you don’t see much detail on Mars on one night don’t give up. Try other nights.

You also need to look at Mars through the eyepiece in your scope for extended periods of time. Quick glances usually won’t do the job. Look through your scope for at least five to 10 minutes at a time to let your eye get used to the light levels in your field of view. Of course, you’ll have to push your telescope along every few minutes to keep Mars in view, unless you’re lucky enough to have a drive system to keep up with Earth’s rotation.

You won’t see much of any surface features through most smaller telescopes, although you might see part of the planet’s northern polar cap.

If your telescope gives you an inverted view as most do, you may see a whiteish tinge on the lower edge of the disk.

If conditions are just right and especially if you have a larger scope, you may also see some dark splotches on Mars that are a part of its extensive valley system and mountains.

You may also notice that the arrangement of the surface features on Mars change over several nights because our planetary neighbor rotates on its axis every 24 hours and 40 minutes, a little slower than our Earth.

There’s a very good piece of software that you can download from Sky and Telescope magazine that shows you what Martian surface features are facing Western Pennsylvania at any given time. Just Google “Mars Profiler” and you should find it.

This weekend the near full moon is parked pretty close to Mars, as shown in the diagram.

Mars also has some other bright company. The second brightest starlike object rising just to the lower left of Mars is actually Saturn.

Next month Saturn will be at its minimum distance to Earth. It’s a lot farther away than Mars, but Saturn is a much larger planet. I’ll have more on Saturn next month in Starwatch.

Antares makes impact

There’s another starlike object below Mars and Saturn that actually is a star.

It’s Antares, the brightest star in the constellation Scorpius, and it’s much, much bigger and brighter than even Saturn.

Antares is more than 3,400 trillion miles away and a humongous 762 million miles in diameter.

If Antares took the place of the sun in our solar system the planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars would all be inside Antares.

What Antares does share with Mars, though, is that it also sports a ruddy hue. In fact, the name Antares means “rival of Mars.”

Enjoy the current Martian invasion.

Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and professional broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis and is author of the book, “Stars, a Month by Month Tour of the Constellations” published by Adventure Publications available at bookstores at http://www.adventurepublications.net