Mars glows brightly over Australia

Clouds over Australia cleared to reveal a brightly glowing Mars today when the red planet came its closest to the Earth for 60,000 years.

“It’s a great atmosphere, I hope everyone gets a chance to see it,” said Nick Lomb, Sydney Observatory’s curator of astronomy.

Astronomers said the southern hemisphere would get the best view of Mars, with it being higher in the skies below the Equator than in the north.

In Europe, Mars will not get 20 or 30 degrees above the horizon while in Argentina or Australia it will be at 70 degrees, nearly directly over the heads of viewers. It would be even higher in parts of Africa.

Mars usually averages about 140 million miles away from Earth, but today it was just a relatively close 34.6 million miles away. The planet will not be so close to Earth again until 2287.

Lomb said Mars is now the brightest object in the sky apart from the moon. Its reddish colour makes it easy to find among the stars.

“Telescopes, even small ones, will allow you to see detail on Mars, including a polar cap and other surface features,” he said.