It will ‘only’ be a 92,400,000 kilometres away from us.  

Who’s counting?

Mars will be very easy to spot because it will be the bright red object in the eastern sky after sunset and relatively close to the Moon tonight, Monday April 14.

However, although from now on Mars and Earth will slowly move further apart from each other in their respective orbits, Mars will continue to remain bright and red in the evening sky for several more months to come.

A completely different type of astronomical phenomenon is also about to treat us.

Tomorrow evening, Tuesday  April 15, there will be a lunar eclipse from around 5.05pm until 6.25pm.

When such an eclipse occurs, the Earth moves exactly between the Sun and Moon so that the Moon moves into the Earth’s shadow.

Interestingly the Moon doesn’t go completely dark as you might expect but instead turns a coppery red colour.

This is due to the Earth’s atmosphere bending the Sun’s light rays inward onto the surface of the moon, especially the red light of the visible light spectrum.

This is related to the way that raindrops in the atmosphere split visible light into the colours of the rainbow.

It is completely safe to look at a lunar eclipse.

In a few weeks, on Tuesday, April 29 there will also be a partial solar eclipse around 5pm. 

This occurs when the Moon moves exactly between the Earth and Sun.

Because the Sun and Moon coincidently appear to be exactly the same size in the sky, the Moon almost completely blocks out the Sun’s light, although the Sun’s outer atmosphere is still spectacularly visible around the edge of the Moon’s silhouette.

Unfortunately, the Sun will not be totally eclipsed at our latitude.

However, the partial eclipsing of the Sun by the Moon will still be very impressive for us here in the Central West.

Looking at a solar eclipse is as extremely dangerous as looking at the Sun at any other time.

It is essential that readers only ever look at the Sun through correct safety equipment and only under the direct supervision of an experienced astronomer.

It is quite rare for two such eclipses to be seen in the same part of the world within a few weeks of each other.

However, another interesting feature of these two events is that they both occur close to sunset and/or moonrise so that the eclipses will appear close to the horizon.

This will make both events all the more impressive.

If readers are interested in learning more about eclipses and the night sky in general, they are most welcome to come along to the next meeting of the Central West Astronomical Society on Friday, May 2, at the Visitors Centre of the Parkes Radio Telescope.