March 1, 2021 at 9:27 am
As far as the UK is concerned, the planets are rather poorly-placed at present, all but Mars being hampered by their proximity to the Sun in the sky.
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However, despite currently being the most northerly planet, the appearance of Mars continues to deteriorate, it being unable to reach its highest position in the sky in darkness.
At the
start of March, Mars shines at mag. +0.9 and presents a diminishing disc 6.4 arcseconds across through the eyepiece.
By the
end of March, the Red Planet will have dimmed further to mag. +1.3 and through the eyepiece of a telescope shrinks to 5.3 arcseconds.