Mars to the left of the moon in the New York City sky on Oct. 1, 2020.
This month marks an exciting time for stargazers. In addition to the blue moon taking place on Halloween, Mars will be especially bright in the night sky throughout October because of its closer proximity to Earth.
On Oct. 6, the fiery planet will make its closest approach – “close” being a relative term here, of course, because it’ll still be about 38 million miles away from Earth. That means Mars will be visible to the naked eye, looking like a teeny, glowing pumpkin floating in a sea of darkness. Mars won’t be this close to Earth for another 15 years: in 2035, it will come within 34 million miles.
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And that’s not all! On Oct. 13, an event referred to as “opposition” will mean that Mars, Earth, and the sun will be perfectly aligned, with Earth in the middle. Whenever this happens, Mars reaches its highest point right around midnight and sets at sunrise. Fortunately, all we have to do to witness this dazzling space show is go outside and look up.
