Hyderabad: Amateur stargazers have a great opportunity to check-out planet Mars in the Hyderabadi night sky in the next few months. At present, the red planet is at its brightest and biggest, as it is lined up with Earth on the same side of the Sun. According to amateur astronomers, one can’t miss the planet Mars, as it will appear as the brightest star in the night sky of Hyderabad. Till the second week of January, the red planet is the closest planet among all the planets in the solar system.
“Till the year-end, after sunset, one can easily locate planet Mars. It will twinkle and will also appear reddish. As days pass by, the distance between Mars and Earth will increase and brightness of the planet will decrease,” says N Sree Raghunandan Kumar, Director, Planetary Society, India.
According to NASA, this is an excellent time for viewing Mars when the planet is directly on the opposite side of Earth from the Sun. “This lineup happens once in two years. During this opposition, Mars and Earth are closest to each other in their orbits. That means Mars is at its brightest,” NASA in its website on Mars close approach said.
