HYDERABAD: Yet another celestial spectacle is in the offing for the budding and amateur astronomers in this New Year. And this time, the spectacle comes in the form of ‘Mars Opposition.’ Come January 27, celestial enthusiasts can spot Mars closest, biggest and brightest on from Earth, while the ‘Mars Opposition’ can be observed on January 30.
Elaborating on the Mars Opposition, N Raghunandan Kumar of Planetary Society of India, says in a statement: “A planet is said to be in opposition when it is directly opposite the Sun from our viewpoint on Earth. On January 30, Sun-Earth-Mars will be on the opposite side from our perspective resulting in fully illuminated Mars by the Sun and appears like a disc.” This spectacle will be visible all through the night and it will be brightest beginning from January 27 till the end of March.
According to the Planetary Society of India officials, sky-gazers can spot the Mars with the naked eye after sunset by looking towards the sky opposite the sunset in between east and north-east directions.
“Whereas at midnight one can see it above his head while in the morning it can be spotted in west and northwest directions. Mars can be spotted until the beginning of year 2011 placed at different directions at start of evening every month with decreasing brightness, size as the planet finally gets away from our view,” they said.