In a coincidence of celestial proportions, the Moon and Mars are having close encounters with Earth at the same time. Moreover, the two will spend Friday night gliding across the sky side-by-side. It's a must-see event: sky map.

On Jan. 27th, Tamas Ladanyi of Tes, Hungary, caught this view of the Red Planet, pre-conjunction:
Image
© Tamas Ladanyi

"I used a Canon 500D (ISO 1600, 6 sec) to photograph the winter landscape on the plateau of Tes with its famous windmills in bright moonlight," says Ladanyi. "Mars shone beautifully above it all."

Readers with backyard telescopes should train their optics on Mars. The planet looks bigger through a telescope now than at any time between 2008 and 2014. Browse the links for views through the eyepiece: from John Nassr of Baguio, Philippines; from Alan Friedman of Buffalo, New York; from Mike Hood of Kathleen, Georgia; from John Nassr of Baguio, Philippines; from Jacob Bassøe of Copenhegen, Denmark; from Sadegh Ghomizadeh of Tehran, Iran.