Look for them around 10 p.m. local daylight time, roughly one-quarter up in the western sky. In addition to their closeness ...

Mars appears red due to its abundance of oxidized iron. ... Mars will shine as vividly as Sirius, the night sky’s brightest star. But if you can only stay up late one night, ...

Mars will slip behind the moon on January 13, ... The red planet will shine with an apparent brightness of -1.38, comparable to Sirius, the brightest star in the sky.

Honorable mentions: Mars and Rigel When Mars is closer to the Earth, it would normally make the top-five list. But the Red Planet is more than 100 million miles from us and has faded significantly.

Sirius, the brightest of the three stars, will appear first, ... The winter sky has some brightly lit star patterns visible this month, including a triangle featuring Mars, ...

That's just a trifle fainter than Sirius, the brightest star in the sky. Ever since Jan. 12, however, ... Mars now appears as nothing more than a featureless dot in most telescopes.