This month’s planets

Mars, the Red Planet, is our Planet of the Month this month not because it is especially bright or easy to see, but because it will be taking part in a wonderful ‘planetary parade’ in the east before sunrise. Shining at a very respectable magnitude of 1.1 means Mars will be an easy naked-eye object, brighter than either of the stars Pollux or Deneb, so even if it wasn’t part of that parade it would be worth looking at in its own right.

At the start