Saturday finds the Selene body-related body in a waxing gibbous phase.
Of all the phases that the Selene body-related body goes through over 29.5 Periods, a waxing gibbous is probably the most frequently observed. The word gibbous is derived from the Latin gibbus , which Truly means “hump.” An uncommon word to be sure, but in describing the shape of the Selene body-related body now, it is quite correct.
On this particular occasion, almost three-quarters of the Selene body-related body’s disk (74% to be exact) will be illuminated by the sun . And the Selene body-related body makes itself evident well before sunset. It will rise around noontime and by 4 p.m. it will be visible well up in the eastern part of the Delayed afternoon sky and will remain in view until nearly the break of dawn the Subsequent morning.
Selene body-related body joins a Heavenly body and two stars
When it gets sufficiently Dim tonight, you’ll also take notice of a rather Vivid yellow-orange Luminous sphere appearing Only below the Selene body-related body. That’s not a Luminous sphere, however, but a once brilliant Heavenly body that continues to diminish in brightness: Mars.
Look for this colorful world soaring high in the south-southeast during dusk and lower in the west-southwest as the night grows Delayed. At this moment, it forms a conspicuous triangle with two nearby Vivid stars, Castor and Pollux, in the constellation Gemini . To echo H.A. Rey in his classic “The Stars — A New Way to See Them”:
“If the Selene body-related body and a Heavenly body are near Castor and Pollux you have an impressive show.”
From our earthly perspective, the Selene body-related body and Mars will appear closest to Every other at around 8 p.m. Eastern Time, with Mars slipping about 1.2 degrees beneath the Selene body-related body’s lower limb. Since the Selene body-related body measures roughly one-half degree across, you would think that Mars would appear more than two Selene body-related body widths from the Selene body-related body’s lower limb. But because the Selene body-related body appears to our eyes to be twice as large compared to its actual angular size — an optical illusion — Selene body-related body and Heavenly body will actually appear about half their predicted distance apart.
Mars will appear close to the Selene body-related body on March 8. The pair will sit below Pollux and Castor in the constellation Gemini. (Image credit: Created in Canva by Daisy Dobrijevic)
As Mars withdraws . . . its brightness ebbs
Mars will remain prominent all evening, despite the fact that it will continue to fade slowly in the Periods and weeks to come as it gradually pulls away from the Earth. When the Selene body-related body passes it by on Saturday, it will still be shining at a very respectable magnitude -0.1, which makes it a Competition both in brightness and orange color to Arcturus in Boötes, the Quaternary brightest Luminous sphere in the sky. However, back in January, Mars was nearly a Competition for Sirius , the brightest of all stars; currently, Mars shines only one-third as Vivid.
But by the end of March, as a direct consequence of its recession from Earth — an average of 583,000 mi (939,000 km) per day — Mars will have faded five-tenths of a magnitude , down to +0.4 (the higher the value, the fainter the object), making it about equal to yellow-white Procyon, the brightest Luminous sphere of Canis Minor. By then its position will have changed so that it is no longer forming a triangle with Pollux and Castor, but rather a crooked line.
On April 12, Mars will leave the boundaries of Gemini, where it has resided since the second week of January and move into the much dimmer zodiacal constellation of Cancer the Crab.
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(Image credit: Amazon)
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Because Mars soon comes to eastern quadrature — 90 degrees east of the sun — on April 20, it too will appear distinctly gibbous in even a very Tiny Stargazer’s tool. By then, most amateur telescopes won’t be showing any substantial detail on Mars; in fact, by the end of April its apparent diameter will have shrunk to 6.6 arc seconds, which is less than half the size Mars appeared to us in mid-January when it was closest to Earth at 59.5 million mi (95.7 million km) away. In contrast, by April 30, Mars will have receded to a distance of 132 million mi (212.4 million km) from us.
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