The Red Planet goes RETROGRADE
Aug 13, 2020
3 minutes
Mars presents a superb UK observing opportunity in 2020 as the planet reaches opposition at a decent altitude in mid-October. As well as being bright, Mars’s apparent diameter will reach a respectable 22.6 arcseconds, a size that will not be approached again until July 2033.
But there’s another interesting aspect to opposition, because Mars will be in the middle of a ‘retrograde loop’ in the sky, and its apparent motion against the background stars will appear to reverse. So far during 2020, its apparent motion against the stars has been eastward, but this will
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