A rare event is due to take place in Irish skies tonight as an extremely bright red 'star' will appear next to the Full Moon on November 11.
The stunning sight will be visible for one night only, but everyone in Ireland will be able to see it from dusk until dawn tonight.
"Mars comes close to Earth roughly every 2.1 years which it is doing at the end of 2022. This means it will be exceptionally bright to the naked eye,” according to David Moore, Editor of Astronomy Ireland magazine.
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Mr. Moore calculated when this rare sight would take place over Ireland and said: “To have the Full Moon very close to it while Mars is so bright is an extremely rare sight."
Mars is 86 million km from Earth, whereas the Moon will only be 0.4 million km away - that's 200 times closer than Mars is.
"As people stand looking at this marvellous sight in evening skies they can spare a thought that Mars is actually twice as wide as the Moon, but being 200 times further away makes it look just like a bright 'dot' compared to the Moon's huge disk,” Moore went on to say.
If you have hopes of taking a look later tonight, you should look in the East from around 7:00 pm when Mars and the Moon will be rising - It will then be visible until well after midnight.
Next month Mars will pass even closer to the Moon and in fact, will pass behind the Moon on the morning of December 8 - which will be another stunningly rare sight for sky gazers.
If you’re lucky enough to catch either event, Astronomy Ireland magazine is asking people to snap a picture with their camera phones and email their best photo of the event to magazine@astronomy.ie for a special report of what is seen from Ireland of this rare event.
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