But the Red Planet’s brilliance won’t suddenly deteriorate once opposition is over: stay with it for the rest of the month and make the most of its favourable position in the sky.
Mars and the Wolf Moon
Naked-eye stargazers are in for a treat, because brilliant Mars will join the January 2025 full Moon – the Wolf Moon – in the sky.
Observing from around 19:30 UTC on 13 January will reveal the full Moon in the eastern sky, Mars below and to the left of it.
By 22:30 UTC, Mars and the Moon will be even closer together, and will have tracked higher across the sky, now appearing in the southeast.
By midnight on 13 January, Mars will be to the left of the Moon, and the two will now be in the south.
From this point onwards, both bodies will be heading towards the western horizon, but Mars will get ever closer to the Moon, skimming the northern edge of the lunar disc in the very early hours of 14 January.
Of course, this is all a trick of perspective. Mars isn’t really anywhere near the Moon: it just appears this way in the night sky, as we see it from Earth.
The Mars show goes on…
Observe Mars and the Moon later on 14 January as they rise above the eastern horizon in the early evening, and you’ll notice Mars is now above and to the right of the Moon, the two bodies getting farther apart as the evening draws on.
The celestial tango is now over, but the good news is that Mars becomes ever more distant from the waning Moon as the month goes on, giving you a better chance to observe the Red Planet in isolation.
