| Mars is undergoing a slow death in the evening sky, its apparation grinding to a conclusion by dimming and sinking so much that we will have about three months of it essentially not being visible and yet still not having had its conjunction with the Sun. On this date, Mars is still north of the ecliptic, and almost in Virgo, but shining at only magnitude +1.77 and being a measly 3.86" across, which is almost as small as Uranus (3.56" at this time). Note that this is a fairly zoomed in image, because I thought I needed some magnification to pick up Mars well. |