Star Points for July, 2003; by Curtis Roelle Catching Up On Mars This summer's big event for amateur astronomers is the planet Mars. The last time Mars reached opposition on June 21, 2001. At that time Mars was at its closest point to earth since 1988. When Mars reaches opposition next month on August 28 it will be even closer this time! What me mean by "opposition" is that Mars is located in the opposite direction of the sun from us. At opposition Mars rises when the sun sets, and reaches its highest point in the sky where it is best for viewing around local midnight (1 a.m. EDT). Outer planets, such as Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, are best viewed at opposition when the earth "catches up" and the planet is near its closest point to earth. Because they are closer they appear larger and a greater amount of detail can be viewed through a telescope. More about Mars next month. Mars is currently rising around midnight and is high in the sky in morning twilight. It will keep rising a little earlier each night. As viewed with a telescope now, Mars exhibits a slightly gibbous shape similar to that of the moon a day or so before or after full moon. There is one Mars event that you can see in July. The moon will "occult" - or cover up - Mars on the morning of Thursday, July 17. Unfortunately, the occultation is only visible in the Caribbean, Central America, and northern South America. From here however, the gibbous moon will slide past Mars almost brushing it with it's northern sunlit edge. The time to look is between 4 and 5 a.m. This should be an interesting spectacle for the naked eye or binoculars. Just find the moon and look at the bright orange "star" nearby. In a telescope you may notice that the phases of Mars and the Moon are identical - they have the same gibbous shape. One other interesting thing you might catch is the close conjunction between Jupiter and Mercury during the early evening minutes of Friday, July 25. Mercury and Jupiter will be just 0.4 degrees apart so both will be visible in the same low power telescopic field of view. It's going to be tough to see because they will both be low in the WNW. I predict the best time to see them will be shortly after sunset at around 9 p.m. They will only be 4 or 5 degrees above the horizon, so you may want to scan the horizon with binoculars first to try and find them. You may wish to find a hill from which to observe. Good luck with your observations. I encourage anybody who attempts either of these conjunctions to send e-mail with your results. Don't forget to include your observing location and instrument used for your observation.