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GREAT MARTIAN APPARITION OF 2020-2021
[30 May 2020 to 10 January 2021]


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No other currently-known celestial event of calendar year 2020 will hold more opportunity to bring amateur skygazing into the lives of you and your friends and family than the apparition of Mars♂. An apparition is simply a time span during which an object is available for view in the sky. Every twenty-six months Earth♁ swings by and passes the Red Planet, giving anyone interested a chance to see it as close up as possible.

However, the orbits of Earth♁ and Mars♂ are not perfect circles. Therefore some close passes are closer than others, some farther away. This will be the closest pass to Mars♂ in fifteen years. The apparent size of the planet in our sky will exceed one percent the size of the Full Moon!

There is every real possibility of glimpsing a polar cap of Mars♂ as well as the large dark area Syrtis Major. Although the 2020-2021 apparition has been in progress for some time and will continue through the summer of 2021, leisure viewing by beginning skygazers should take place between 30 May and 10 January when the magnitude (brightness) of Mars♂ rivals—and ultimately exceeds—that of the brightest stars.

In order to take full advantage of this opportunity (which will not return for another seventeen years) one should perform several important tasks…

Key Magnitude and Apparent Size Dates

For additional information such as Mars♂’ motions through the sky, conjunctions with the Moon and other bodies, Baton Rouge rise times, constellation locations, Martian seasons and the latest Martian photography from this incredible apparition, please go to…

http://www.brastro.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=3077

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