The Sky Today on Tuesday, July 14: Mars sits north of Aldebaran
The Red Planet passes due north of red giant star Aldebaran in Taurus the Bull. Catch the lovely early-morning view if you’re up before dawn.
Mars sits 5° north of luminary Aldebaran in Taurus early this morning. Uranus is also in Taurus; it may be just visible to the naked eye from a dark site, and is easily picked up in binoculars or a telescope. Credit: Stellarium
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July 13: A young cluster in Cygnus
Mars passes 5° north of the red giant star Aldebaran in Taurus the Bull this morning at 3 A.M. EDT. The best time to view this lovely pairing will be just over an hour before sunrise, when the region is well above the eastern horizon but the sky has not grown too bright with the oncoming dawn.
Mars glows at magnitude 1.3, fainter than magnitude 0.9 Aldebaran below it. Regardless of their differing magnitudes, however, consider their colors. Both should appear orangey-red, albeit for different reasons. The Red Planet is covered in what is essentially rust (iron oxide), which has an orangey hue, and is apparent when sunlight reflects off the planet’s surface. Meanwhile, Aldebaran’s color comes from its temperature — it is generating its own light, but this star burns at a lower temperature than our yellow-hued Sun.
Also visible in the early-morning sky is the Pleiades star cluster (M45), to the pair’s far upper right. The planet Uranus hangs below the Pleiades, technically visible to the naked eye under dark conditions and easy to pick up with any optics regardless of your site.
Sunrise: 5:43 A.M.
Sunset: 8:28 P.M.
Moonrise: 5:41 A.M.
Moonset: 9:07 P.M.
Moon Phase: Waxing crescent (1%)
*Times for sunrise, sunset, moonrise, and moonset are given in local time from 40° N 90° W. The Moon’s illumination is given at 10 P.M. local time from the same location.
Alison Klesman is senior editor of Astronomy magazine. She holds a Ph.D. in astronomy and has studied a variety of topics, from minor planets to supermassive black holes.
