Star Points for May, 1999; by Curtis Roelle Evening Stars of Love and War Last month I mentioned that Venus was a dazzling sight in the western evening sky. Well, it's still there this month, shining on like a radiant white diamond against the purple velvet of twilight. Through a telescope Venus shows phases like the moon. Currently its shape is gibbous, or somewhere between half and full. Although nearly identical to Earth in size, Venus looks rather small in early May, with an apparent diameter of only 17 arcseconds. This is the same size of a dime viewed from a distance of 760 feet. Venus' apparent diameter balloons to more than triple that size as it catches and passes us at a distance of 26.5 million miles in August. Venus is not alone in the May sky. She shares the evening with the planet Mars, named after the Roman god of war. From his seat low in the east on the opposite side of the sky from her Mars admires from a distance the goddess of love. Compared with the pearly white Venus, Mars is noticeably orangish-red. After the moon these two planets are the brightest objects during any night in May. Mars was at its closest point to Earth on May 1 at a distance of 54.2 million miles. Notice that this is twice as far as Venus' upcoming close encounter. At 16.2 arcseconds the apparent diameter of Mars is slightly smaller than Venus is when viewed telescopically. The combined orbital periods of Mars and Earth cause closest approaches to occur about every 26 months. Roughly speaking Earth travels around the sun slightly more than two times in the same time it takes Mars to make one trip. To be move precise, "in the time for the Earth to go around the Sun 79 times, Mars goes around almost exactly 42 times," according to Guy Ottewell's Astronomical Calendar. In other words, Mars' 1999 appearance is a repeat performance of its 1920 apparition. Mars continues to be the focus of ongoing and upcoming NASA programs. Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) is currently photographing the Martian surface. Its main payload, the Mars Orbiter Camera, is similar to the one launched on the ill-fated Mars Observer mission, which was lost upon reaching Mars in 1993. After a problem that delayed MGS from achieving the desired orbit for more than a year, it has finally reached its intended mapping orbit. Launched in 1998 NASA's next vehicles to reach Mars will be the Mars Climate Orbiter (MCO) and Mars Polar Lander (MPL). Japan also has a spacecraft enroute to Mars called Nozomi. Estimated time of arrival for the NASA missions are later this year. An unplanned engine problem has delayed Nozomi's arrival for five additional years. Nobody ever said getting to Mars was going to be easy. German rocket scientist Wernher von Braun dreamed of sending a manned mission to Mars. Using a slide rule for calculations he wrote 'The Mars Project' "to demonstrate that on the basis of technologies and the know-how then available (in 1948), the launching of a large expedition to Mars was a definite technical possibility." He was convinced that a such a passenger mission could be achieved within a generation and in his writing set a target launch date of 1962. Although von Braun's goal has been deferred until the next millennium, the first Martian visitors are likely to be found strolling the halls of the school system today, and may be seeing Mars in their telescope for the first time during Mars' current favorable approach.