Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Ephemeris for Monday, July 30th. The Sun rises at 6:26. It’ll be up for 14 hours and 44 minutes, setting at 9:10. The Moon, 3 days past full, will rise at 10:51 this evening.

Mars’ closest approach to the Earth since August 27, 2003 is tomorrow at about 3:51 a.m. at a distance of 35.8 million miles (57.6 million km). The last really close approach of Mars was on August 27, 2003 when it was about 600 thousand miles (a million km) closer. That close approach was probably the closest in 50 thousand years. Mars and the Earth get close in their orbits about every 26 months. But because Mars has a much more elliptical orbit than the Earth, the very best close encounters occur every 15 or 17 years. Despite the fact that we have satellites that orbit Mars and two rovers operating on its surface, amateur astronomers still challenge themselves to observe and photograph Mars at its very closest.

The times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.

Addendum

Mars’ closest approaches to the Earth in the period 2003 to 2018 also showing the apparent sizes of the planet at each approach. Click on image to enlarge. Created using my LookingUp program and Cartes du Ciel (Sky Charts).