Whats the bright star next to the moon tonight? Its Mars – Deseret News

Just a couple of days before we are visited by a rare blue moon on Halloween night, two of our closest celestial neighbors will appear side by side in the night sky.

According to Thrillist, the nearly full moon and Mars will appear together in close proximity for the second time this month on the nights of Oct. 28 and 29, and theyll be visible together until approximately 5 a.m. local time.

According to the site, the moon will appear sitting just southwest of Mars, on Oct. 28 and on Oct. 29 itll be situated to the southeast of the red planet.

While the two celestial bodies will be positioned too far apart from each other to be seen together through most telescopes, you still should be able to see them through binoculars. But even without the aid of optical instruments, the two cosmic orbs will be clearly visible with the naked eye.

It helps that Mars temporarily surpassed Jupiter to become the fourth brightest celestial body in our sky (behind the sun, the moon and Venus), according to earthsky.org. This comes as a result of Mars reaching what is referred to as opposition earlier this month. Opposition is the point in which Earth is positioned directly between the red planet and the sun. During this time, Mars is the closest it will be to Earth until September 2035, according to ABC 11. So, now is an ideal time to look for our glowing red neighbor in the night sky.

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Whats the bright star next to the moon tonight? Its Mars - Deseret News