This is going to be the year and the time of year to get an awesome view of Mars!
It’s not going to be in opposition until October 13th of 2020 but it’s going to get bigger and bigger in our skies until then. This doesn’t happen every year, so I am super excited
Here is a link to the Eyes on the Sky video about it.
When I started looking at Jupiter and Saturn earlier in the year, Mars was still too far over the Eastern horizon and I couldn’t get a good view. However in recent days it’s been getting close and is visible between the trees as a reasonable hour.
It doesn’t look super large in the view of the Z-130 scope, even at 130x magnification but you can definitely see the red shades and shape of the planet.
What’s even better is that I’m going to be in a Bortle class 4 sky next weekend with the telescope! So hopefully we will get some clear skies and awesome views of Mars and I hope you do too.
Astrophotonic 