THE Red Planet is getting closer to Earth in its journey around the Sun. Look for brilliant reddish 'star' in the south-eastern sky, that's Mars and it even outshines Sirius.
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By the time you finish reading this story, you'll be about 1,000 km closer to Mars. The distance between the two planets is shrinking by about 300 km every minute.
On April 14, the distance between Earth and Mars narrows to only 92 million kilometres, a small number on the vast scale of the solar system, but a seven month flight for NASA's speediest rockets.
Mars will be easy to see with the unaided eye, even from brightly lit cities. With a modest backyard telescope, you can view the rusty disc of Mars as well as the planet's whitish north polar cap. You know, from Mars, the Sun appears only 44 percent as bright as it does from Earth.
Remarkably, on the same nights that Mars is closest to Earth, there will be a lunar eclipse. The full Moon of April 15 will turn red, maybe as deep as the Red Planet itself.
For Hastings readers the eclipse begins at moonrise, about 5:28pm, when the totality phase will have just started.
When you look up at the stars, what do you think about? That we may be not be alone? The vastness of it all? There's a lot to wonder about space and the fact is, we don't know all the answers about it. The next time you're out stargazing, ponder this. By studying the skies, you are essentially staring into history. The starlight you presently enjoy seeing takes hundreds, thousands and sometimes millions of years to reach us.
You are also moving through space at the rate of 530 kilometres a second. Our Galaxy, the Milky Way, is moving too, spinning at a whopping 225 kilometres per second. In addition, the galaxy is travelling through space at the rate of 305 kilometres per second. Whew!
This means that we are travelling at a total speed of 530 kilometres per second. It sounds crazy but in one minute you are about 19 thousand kilometres away from where you were. Feeling dizzy?
Hey, its space station spotting time again. Look to the North West on Saturday morning April 12 at 5.07am and you'll see it pass overhead for 5 minutes. Now, if you get this silly urge to wave up at the astronauts when you are watching the Space Station pass over you - give in.
I do it every time.
