ASTRONOMY FOR BEGINNERS
HOW TO SEE: MARS AND THE BEEHIVE
WHEN: NOVEMBER/EARLY WINTER
After a fairly poor showing of planets early in 2024, fortunes reverse as we enter the latter part of the year. Jupiter is now dominant in the night sky, a bright object nestled against the stars of Taurus, the Bull, near the Pleiades and Hyades open clusters. Mars follows on later in the night, its salmon-pink colour a useful way to confirm its identity. Also referred to as the Red Planet due to this colour (something that arises from the fact that Mars is essentially rusty, its surface containing a lot of iron oxide), Mars’s orbital period means it’s well-presented for telescope viewing approximately every 2.1 years.