Mars orbit

Presentation by John Attewell

High in the winter sky is the bright planet Mars above Orion in the constellation Gemini. Mars will be in aphelion opposition on January 16, 2025. Perihelion oppositions are perhaps more interesting because Mars has a larger angular diameter. However, each Mars opposition is an opportunity to review how Kepler actually used Mars’ opposition to determine its elliptical orbit. And to define Kepler’s laws.
In this lecture, we will also discuss the loop Mars describes between the constellations of the winter sky.

John Attewell, PhD. is a vice president of the Rochester Astronomy Club. John is a retired statistician and he observes the sky with a Newtonian telescope on an equatorial mount. He is an officer of the North Central Region of the Astronomy League (NCRAL) and he is a Representative to the National Council of the Astronomy League.

Observing

Calendar in development

☿ – Mercury, ♀ – Venus, ♂ – Mars, ♃ – Jupiter, ♄ – Saturn, ⛢ – Uranus, ♆ – Neptune

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