Where is Mars tonight?

How to recognize Mars with the naked eye

Mars looks like a steady, orange-red star close to the ecliptic, the band of zodiac constellations that the Sun, Moon and planets follow. NASA notes that its color is its most striking feature and comes from iron in the rocks on its surface.

Its brightness varies a great deal. Near a close opposition, NASA’s fact sheet puts it at magnitude −2.9, among the brightest objects in the night sky. (Lower magnitudes mean brighter.) When it is far away, on the other side of the Sun, it fades to the level of an ordinary bright star and is easy to overlook.

The one common mix-up is with Antares, the red star in Scorpius, which Morehead Planetarium flags as often mistaken for Mars. Stars twinkle more than planets, and Antares never moves against the background stars, while Mars drifts from one constellation to another over weeks.

What binoculars and a small telescope show

Binoculars show only a small orange dot, but they help you follow Mars as it moves past stars and star clusters.

A telescope is where Mars gets interesting, and only near opposition. NASA notes that a telescope can then show dark and light regions on the surface and a bright polar ice cap. Steady air and patience help, since detail comes and goes as the air shimmers. Away from opposition, Mars shrinks to a tiny disk that shows almost nothing.

How much you see depends on the kind of opposition. The Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers (ALPO) explains that at a close, perihelic opposition, Mars can appear about 25 arcseconds across. At a distant, aphelic opposition it reaches only about 14 arcseconds, little more than half the width. The 2027 opposition is one of the distant ones, according to JPL Horizons data, so expect the polar cap and the darkest markings at best, not the detail of a close year.

Why its visibility comes and goes

Earth moves around the Sun faster than Mars. Roughly every 26 months, NASA’s fact sheet gives 780 days, Earth catches up with Mars and passes between it and the Sun. That alignment is opposition. Mars is then opposite the Sun in our sky: it rises at sunset, stays up all night and is at or near its closest and brightest. NASA’s skywatching FAQ calls this the best time to observe it.

After opposition, Earth pulls ahead. Mars appears earlier in the evening each month, shrinks and fades, and eventually disappears behind the Sun at conjunction. It then reemerges in the morning sky and slowly climbs back toward the next opposition. Because the cycle is so long, Mars spends many months as a faint evening or morning object between its good showings.

Mars’s orbit is noticeably elongated, so not all oppositions are equal. ALPO describes a cycle of about 15 to 16 years: three or four distant oppositions followed by three close ones, a pattern that repeats closely every 79 years.

Tips for seeing Mars

• Plan around opposition. The best telescopic views come within a few weeks either side of it. The table above lists the date.
• Let it climb. Mars looks sharpest when it is high in the sky, away from the turbulent air near the horizon. Around opposition, that means near midnight.
• Watch it move. Check Mars against nearby stars every week or so, and you will see it shift position, something no star does.

Our planets page shows which planets are up tonight, and the guide to finding planets explains how to tell planets from stars.