With NASA’s Curiosity rover touching down on Mars tomorrow at 3.31 pm AEST, you may not realise that you can see Mars in the night sky without even needing a telescope.
Just look above the North Western horizon once the sky darkens for a triangular group of stars. Mars is the bottom star in the triangle. You actually get a second planet thrown in for free as the right hand star in the triangle is Saturn. If you have even a small telescope point it at Saturn as you will be able to see its rings. Unfortunately pointing the same telescope at Mars will be disappointing Mars is too small and too far away to show any surface features.
Finally, keep an eye on Saturn and Mars over the next few weeks. They are going to change positions relative in the sky relative to each other and the star Spica. If you want to a sneak preview of what this will look like, download and make an old fashioned flip book I have made to show you what this will look like sped up. Go to this page and download the Mars, Saturn and Spica Flip Book.
