welcome, mars!

tonight mars is at its closest point to us for the next 8 years.... at about 88 million km (55 million miles) away! this is pretty close, but still 32 million km (20 million miles) farther away than in august 2003 (you may recall the "mars will look as big as the moon" hoax emails that started around that time).

mars looks bright and orange as it slowly moves across the evening sky near orion.