Waning Crescent Moon, Mars and the Red Supergiant Star Antares Before Dawn, January 19-20

Mars rises before dawn during January with its "rival," the red giant star Antares. View the pair low in the southeast, about an hour before sunrise on January 19th. Mars and Antares are joined by a slim lunar crescent on Jan. 20th for what should be a very pretty grouping. Antares is the brightest star in the constellation Scorpius the Scorpion. The name of this red giant star translates as "rival to Mars" in ancient Greek, and the star rivals the Red Planet's appearance to the unaided eye, both in color and brightness. In reality, Antares is way, way bigger than Mars. In fact, it's much bigger than the orbit of Mars. It's about 10,000 times brighter than our Sun, but it's also 16 million times farther away from us than Mars is, so, like all stars, even though it's really bright, it appears as just a tiny, flickering point of light in the night sky. Clear Skies Everyone!



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