If you look up into the sky this evening, and the sky is clear enough, you should be able to view the planet Mars and a cluster of stars known as The Pleiades, or Seven Sisters, in their closest conjuction since 1991.
The two won't be near this close again until 2036.
No matter where you live worldwide, look for Mars and the Pleiades at nightfall and early evening, for that’s when the twosome is highest up for the night. Mars and the Pleiades sink westward as evening deepens into late night, so it might be best to spot the close encounter at early evening. The celestial couple stays out until around midnight at mid-northern latitudes, or mid-evening at temperate latitudes in the Southern Hemisphere.
Abhijit Patil caught red Mars and the dipper-shaped Pleiades star cluster – aka the Seven Sisters – on April 1, 2019.
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The Pleiades is easy to recognize with its diminutive size and dipper-like shape.
To locate the Pleiades, look for three medium-bright stars in a short, straight row: the easy-to-spot Belt of Orion, the Hunter. You can star-hop from Orion’s Belt stars – through Aldebaran – to Mars and the Pleiades.
It’s easy to distinguish Mars from Aldebaran, by the way, despite the similarity between the planet and star in color and brightness. That’s because the red “star” appearing much closer to the Pleiades star cluster is none other than Mars.
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If you have binoculars Mars and the Pleiades cluster should fit within a binocular field for at least several days, if not close to a week. If you’ve never viewed the Pleiades cluster through binoculars, you’re missing out on one of the sky’s most magnificent treasures. Most people can see six Pleiades stars with the eye alone, but binoculars dramatically increase the number of Pleiades stars that you can see.
HAPPY STARGAZING
