Tuesday, June 22, 2021
Mars in front of the Beehive (June 23-24, 2021)
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| Approximate binocular view of Mars and the Beehive cluster on Wednesday June 23, 2021 (click to embiggen) | Approximate binocular view of Mars and the Beehive cluster on Thursday June 24, 2021 (click to embiggen) |
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| Evening twilight sky on Wednesday, June 23 looking north-west as seen from Adelaide at 18:44 ACST (90 minutes after sunset). | Evening twilight sky on Thursday, June 24 looking north-west as seen from Adelaide at 18:44 ACST (90 minutes after sunset). |
Over the next two days there will be a really lovely event. Mars will pass over the beehive cluster in the constellation of Cancer. While the beehive cluster is technically visible to the unaided eye, it is at the very threshold and the cluster and Mars will be only 13 degrees above the horizon (about two hand-spans) in the horizon murk.
However, the cluster and Mars will early fit within a binoculars or medium field of view telescope eye piece, so it will be a magnificent sight in even small instruments. Finding Mars above the horizon is easy as the relatively bright reddish object over the horizon, and in binoculars the cluster will be obvious.
Even if you miss these two days (looks at rain bucketing down) Mars will be within a binocular field of th cluster for another tw days at least.
Labels: Beehive cluster, binocular, Mars
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