Mars And Spica

Mars was in the constellation Virgo on Saturday night, April 5, 2014, and was close to the constellation's principal star Spica. These three images show the two celestial bodies--with Mars above and slightly left of Spica--as they rose in the east sky. The top two images view the duo from Bowman Woods Park in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, with Brentwood Drive NE in the background from 9:23-9:28 PM. The bottom image looks over the back of our house at 10:40 PM. Mars shone at -1.44 magnitude, Spica at 0.96. The red planet will achieve its brightest magnitude since December, 2007 on April 8, at -1.5. Mars at this time is marginally more brilliant that the sky's brightest star, Sirius.