Planet guide
Mars tonight
Where Mars sits in tonight's sky depends on your latitude and the hour. Set a location for its altitude, direction and best viewing time.
Mars is unmistakably orange to the eye — no other bright object in the sky has quite that colour. Its brightness varies wildly: near opposition it can rival Jupiter; near solar conjunction it's a modest orange dot.
Location not set
Set a location for tonight's viewing details
Magnitude and distance are the same for everyone. Rise, set, altitude and the best hour are not — they depend entirely on your latitude and longitude.
- Rise, set and best viewing time tonight
- Altitude now and at its best
- Compass direction to face
- An altitude curve across the whole night
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What it is
Mars in one paragraph
Half the diameter of Earth, with a thin CO₂ atmosphere (~1% of ours). Surface temperatures average −60 °C (−76 °F). It hosts Olympus Mons — a 22 km-high volcano, the tallest in the solar system — and Valles Marineris, a canyon 4,000 km long. Two small moons: Phobos and Deimos.
Naked eye & binoculars
How to actually see it
Best viewed around opposition (roughly every 26 months), when Earth passes between Mars and the Sun. At opposition Mars rises at sunset and stays up all night. Between oppositions it can still be a good target — just check its rise time and altitude tonight.
Through a telescope
What you'll actually see in the eyepiece
A 100 mm (4-inch) or larger telescope shows the polar ice caps and darker surface markings like Syrtis Major. Wait for steady 'seeing' — turbulence in Earth's atmosphere is what limits Mars detail more than aperture.
Key facts
Mars at a glance
- Distance from Sun
- 228 million km
- Diameter
- 6,779 km
- Year
- 687 Earth days
- Moons
- 2 (Phobos, Deimos)