The head of the Astronomical Society in Jeddah, Eng. Majid Abu Zahira, stated that the moon and Mars will be observed towards the north-eastern horizon, and because the apparent distance between them is wide, they will not appear together in the field of view of the telescope, but it can be done through binoculars.
He said: “Monitoring the brightness of Mars weekly is very important to monitor how it will change dramatically between now and the day of the meeting next December. These dramatic changes in the brightness of Mars (and its red color) are the reason why the ancients called this planet after the god of war. Sometimes a god rests. War and sometimes violent, these changes are part of the reason why Mars is so amazing to see in the night sky.”
Abu Zahira added: “To understand why the brightness of Mars varies so much in the Earth’s sky, we must realize that Mars is not a very large planet, with a diameter of only 6,790 km, unlike Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, with a diameter of Jupiter 140,000 km.” .
He pointed out that the reason why the red planet is sometimes bright, is that the Earth takes a year to revolve around the sun once, and Mars takes about two years to revolve once, so the encounter of Mars occurs when the Earth passes between Mars and the sun every two years and 50 days.
The head of the Astronomical Society in Jeddah continued, “So the brightness of Mars wanes and increases in the sky approximately every two years, but this is not the only cycle of Mars that affects its brightness, there is also a 15-year cycle of bright and faint encounters.”
It is noteworthy that the date of the next meeting of Mars – when the planet will appear at its peak in two years in the sky – will be in the second half of this year 2022.