Mars is especially fetching this month. That’s because it lines up opposite the Sun on Thursday. It rises around sunset and remains in view all night. It’s also brightest for the year – it looks like a brilliant orange star. It shines as intensely as Sirius, the brightest true star in the night sky.

Mars looks bright because it passes closest to Earth for the entire year today. It’s about 60 million miles away. That’s not an especially close opposition; at its best, Mars can approach to within about 35 million miles.

But Mars’s orbit is lopsided, so the planet’s distance from both the Sun and Earth varies by tens of millions of miles. This time, we’re catching Mars near its farthest point, making this one of the planet’s fainter oppositions.

But the view is enhanced by a couple of nearby stars: Pollux and Castor, the twins of Gemini. Pollux is closer to Mars, and the two of them will snuggle even more tightly over the coming nights. At their closest, they’ll be only about two degrees apart – the width of your finger held at arm’s length. Mars and Pollux have a similar color, but Pollux is only about one-tenth as bright as Mars.

The Moon will heighten the drama tomorrow night. It’ll cross in front of Mars, blocking it from view. The disappearing act will be visible from the Lower 48 states. At most, Mars will remain out of view for a little more than an hour. We’ll have more about that tomorrow.

Script by Damond Benningfield