Olympus Mons in particular can attract bright clouds; these indicate its position in small to medium telescopes – the Solar System’s largest volcano is otherwise invisible to such apertures. Mars reaches aphelion – it farthest distance from the sun – on March 2, 2027. For 2020, Mars is closest to Earth on 6 October and appears 22.6 arcseconds across, a week before opposition on the 13th. In the last few years the northern hemisphere albedo feature known as Acidalium has changed considerably and it will be important to track any new changes which result in future dust storms. Stargazers call this event—when two celestial bodies appear to pass close to each other—a conjunction. It’s also a great way to become familiar with Martian geography, especially if you have several drawings of the same feature. Although the Martian atmosphere is tenuous, it is quite capable of producing powerful dust storms. Here we’ll highlight some of the seasonal changes you can expect to see with a telescope, and how best to go about observing them.

If you do see fogs and white clouds, it is worth spending some time observing them as they can be quite dynamic, often forming and evaporating over the course of an hour or two. In actual fact, Mars will remain high and bright in the evening skies for months to come; for many its appearance at a more convenient time in dark evening skies will be the time when it really grabs the attention. Marcelo Barbosa in Texas captured this telescopic image of Mars on September 27, 2020. Look to the east around midnight on Saturday going into Sunday and you’ll easily find a waning gibbous Moon.

Watch out for brilliant white clouds that collect around the Tharsis volcanoes. Mars was only slightly farther, but still very close, in 2018. You can see it easily with the eye alone as the resplendent red “star” in the east every evening, and in the west before dawn. For the continental U.S. and Canada, Mars’ closest approach comes on October 6, 2020, at at 10 a.m. EDT, 9 a.m. CDT, 8 a.m. MDT, 7 a.m. PDT, 6 a.m. Alaskan Time and at 4 a.m. Hawaiian Time. In January 2021 keep an eye on the Hellas Basin, to the south of Syrtis Major. At the 2018 close approach – on July 31, 2018 – Mars was 35.78 million miles (57.59 million km) away. In the year 2027, Mars’ opposition comes on February 19, 2027, and Mars sweeps closest to Earth on February 20, 2929. Storms always start off as bright yellow or orange clouds. Remember the historically close approach of Mars in 2003? You might think Mars should be brighter when closest to Earth on October 6 than at opposition on October 13.

Ls can be thought of as the angle made by Mars as it moves around the Sun. When bright clouds occur on the limb of the planet, they can be really quite brilliant.

The conjunction of two of the night sky’s top sights isn’t that rare, but there are few more pleasing celestial sights to unaided naked eyes than a big Moon passing a bright, red planet. October 6 of this year … Take the chance to follow the Red Planet for as long as possible and keep track of all of the interesting developments occurring on it. Each filter is unique, and you can identify each one by looking at the W number on the side. Of course, these moments of closest approach are fleeting as both Earth and Mars move in their orbits around the sun. Winds of half  the speed of sound have been recorded. You could even try to catch the Moon at moonrise—the most beautiful time to observe our satellite—by consulting this Moon calculator to get times for your exact location. By March 2021, observers using larger scopes might be able to catch sight of the northern polar cap. Of course, Martian months are longer than Earth’s, since a Martian year is about twice that of our own. Mars is a tiny bit fainter now than it will be at its October 13 opposition. It is now shining more brilliantly than the planet Jupiter, and it’s not very often that Mars outshines the king planet!

Mars’ orbit around the sun takes 687 days in contrast to 365 days for Earth. You should be able to glimpse it as a bluish-white haze on the northern limb, and it will become more prominent towards the year’s end. After that, Earth will next lap Mars on January 16, 2025, but its closest approach will come on January 12, 2025. This guide originally appeared in the November 2020 issue of BBC Sky at Night Magazine. He wrote: “Looks like it was shot from Mars – not really, of course – but it does look like Mars shot it toward Earth. October 2020 is all about the glory of Mars as the glimmering red planet puts on a show in the night sky. Ever since July 4, 2020, Earth has been moving closer to the sun; and ever since August 3, 2020, Mars has been edging away from the sun. If you have a small to medium sized telescope, try using a light Local ones will require a 150mm telescope or larger to be seen, but regional ones can be visible in smaller instruments. So, when opposition occurs close to this value of Ls, we know it will be a ‘perihelic’ opposition – as was the case in October.

One only has to look back at a map of Mars drawn in the 1960s to see how a number of features like Syrtis Major and Solis Lacus have changed over time. In the diagram above you can see that the Martian orbit is divided up into 12 intervals. Dust storms in particular can produce quite pronounced changes to the dark albedo features, as vast amounts of dust tend to be moved and deposited into new locations. These storms usually begin life as small orange clouds and they are easier to see if you use a red filter (W25) when observing Mars.

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