CHICAGO (WLS) --Mars will be the closest it has been to Earth in 15 years overnight Monday into Tuesday and the Adler Planetarium is celebrating with free public viewing as the moment approaches. "If you've been seeing an extraordinarily orange thing in the sky, that's Mars," said Adler Planetarium Director of Public Observing Michelle Nichols.The Red Planet, she explained, has been moving closer to Earth for weeks. But in the early morning hours Tuesday, the two will be as close as they're going to get until 2035. "Normally Mars is fairly boring. It's fairly small through our telescope. So a lot of the time, we ignore it," Nichols said.But during this rare event, that changes. "We might see some slight color gradations, where it would suggest surface features," said Nichols, adding that because of an ongoing dust storm on Mars, "we won't know (until) we see it. But that's the cool thing about observing, that's the cool thing about astronomy. "From 9-11 p.m. Monday night, there will be telescopes set up on the planetarium's eastern side (next to the Doane Observatory). Visitors will have a chance to look up at Mars and also hold a piece of it in their hands, in the form of a small meteorite.If you can't make it to the Adler and don't have access to a telescope at home, you can watch a live picture from Adler's Doane Observatory here . ABC 7 will have live coverage on our Facebook page around 10 p.m. from the Adler Planetarium as well.Nichols said that although the closest distance will be early Tuesday morning, Mars will be bright in the night sky for a few more weeks.<doc-sep>Mars is approaching its closest distance to Earth in 15 years. On July 31, it will sit just 36,000,000 miles from our planet. That might sound pretty far, but in solar system terms, it's incredibly close. This means Mars will appear bigger and brighter than usual. Even if you missed Friday morning's opposition—where Earth traveled between the red planet and the sun—Mars is still remarkably bright in the night sky—and it will be for several weeks. On Friday, Mars will be visible from sunset, but NASA recommends waiting until midnight to get the best view, as the red planet will sit higher in the sky. Mars will be visible for several months, but it will appear smaller as we move into autumn. "When you first spot Mars rising in the east after sunset, you'll be startled by how bright it looks," noted Sky & Telescope observing editor Diana Hannikainepn. "Its pale orange color is unmistakable." If you're Mars-gazing tonight or over the next few months, look to the constellation Capricornus to catch a glimpse of the glowing planet. Mars will sit to the south of the half-goat half-fish pattern of stars. You don't need a telescope to catch the ocher orb, because it will shine so brightly. For much of the world, a blood moon will add to Mars's red domination of the skies Friday night (or Saturday morning, depending on your location). But if you live somewhere outside the viewing zone—like the U.S.—you can catch the event online with such websites as the Virtual Telescope Project or Timeanddate.com. You can check if and when you're in the viewing zone on this map. Virtual Telescope Project astronomer Gianluca Masi recently announced the livestream would take place from the historic Roman Forum in Rome, facing the city's iconic Colosseum. If you have your own telescope, you'll get a clearer picture of the red orb than with the naked eye. Surface details, however, will be obscured by a dust storm that's been raging across the planet for several weeks. If you don't have your own telescope, find out if your local observatory is hosting a viewing party for Friday's eclipse or Tuesday's close approach. If you don't want to head outside in the dead of night to watch the approach, Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles will be live streaming the event from 10 p.m. PT Monday July 30 (1:00 a.m. Tuesday ET) till 1.30 a.m. PT Tuesday (4:30 a.m. ET Tuesday). The event will be canceled if the weather isn't favorable. But don't worry—Mars will continue to stun for weeks. The planet will be far brighter than Jupiter at its peak, EarthSky reported, and it will continue to outshine the gas giant until September.<doc-sep>Mars, as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope in August 2003. That month, the Red Planet came closer to Earth than it had in the previous 60,000 years. Mars will make its closest approach to Earth in 15 years early tomorrow morning (July 31), and you can follow the historic encounter live online. The Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles will air a webcast about the celestial event, with expert commentary, from 1 a.m. EDT to 5 a.m. EDT (0500 to 0900 GMT; 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. local Pacific time). You can watch the show here at Space.com, courtesy of Griffith, or directly via the observatory. You can see Mars with your own eyes before dawn on Tuesday (weather permitting) by looking to the southwestern sky. At about 4 a.m. your local time, Mars will be visible low on the southwestern horizon, with the moon shining to the upper left (as shown in the map below). [Mars at Opposition 2018: How to See It and What to Expect] Mars will shine in the soutwestern sky before dawn on July 31, 2018, when it will be at its closest to Earth since 2003. This Starry Night sky map shows where to look to see Mars at 4 a.m. your local time. (Image credit: Starry Night Software The Griffith Observatory is well-placed to host the Mars-viewing show. "By a celestial coincidence, at the same time, Mars will be at its very best position for viewing through a telescope from Los Angeles, as it crosses the meridian and appears highest in the southern sky," observatory representatives wrote in a statement. If you live in the Los Angeles area, you can also attend the Griffith event in person, for free. The observatory grounds will be open to the public, and small telescopes will be available for Mars viewing. (These scopes will be on the lawn; the observatory building itself will be closed.) The moment of closest approach occurs at 3:45 a.m. EDT (0745 GMT), when Mars and Earth will be separated by just 35.8 million miles (57.6 million kilometers). The two planets haven't rubbed shoulders so tightly since August 2003, when they veered within 34.6 million miles (55.7 million km) of each other. That 2003 encounter was truly special — the closest between the neighbor planets in about 60,000 years. Indeed, it came within a cosmic hair of the Mars-to-Earth minimum distance, which is 33.9 million miles (54.6 million km). (The maximum separation of the two planets is about 249 million miles, or 401 million km, and the average distance between them is 140 million miles, or 225 million km.) Tomorrow morning's close approach follows on the heels of Mars' "opposition." This milestone — when Mars, Earth and the sun align, with our planet in the middle — occurred Friday (July 27). Mars has been noticeably brighter than usual in our skies for a while, as it's been getting closer and closer to Earth. But the Red Planet is nowhere near as big or as bright as the moon. So don't fall for that hoax, which keeps popping up despite persistent debunking efforts. Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.<doc-sep>Perhaps you’ve already noticed the dazzling red dot dancing in the night sky. That’s Mars, our planetary neighbor. And for the past few weeks it has been growing brighter as it slowly approached a state that astronomers call opposition, when it and the sun are on opposite sides of Earth. It’s like we’re in between the two right now in a cosmic game of monkey in the middle. This occurred on Friday. It is now being followed by Mars’s closest approach to Earth Monday into Tuesday, and everyone in the world can watch, weather permitting. How often does Mars opposition occur? Earth and Mars align with the sun in opposition about once every two years. But truly jaw-dropping midnight views of Mars happen every 15 to 17 years. That’s when opposition occurs when Mars is at perihelion, or its closest position to the sun, according to Rich Zurek, project scientist for NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. This upcoming opposition will be one of those moments.<doc-sep>
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Mars will make its closest approach to Earth in the last 15 years early Tuesday morning -- making it appear brighter and larger than usual. The event, called Mars Close Approach, occurs when Mars is 35.8 million miles away from Earth, closer than normal. When Mars and Earth are close to each other, Mars appears very bright in the sky. Mars will be visible to the naked eye, but spectators can use binoculars and telescopes to get a more detailed view. It will be visible southeast of the moon, with a noticeably redder color than stars surrounding it. It will reach its highest point around midnight on July 31 -- about a third of the distance between the horizon and overhead. Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, Calif. will livestream the close approach, from 1 to 4 a.m. Eastern on Tuesday. The red planet comes close enough for viewing only once or twice every 15 or 17 years. IN OPPOSITION Since the red planet and the sun appear on opposite sides of the sky, Mars is in opposition, according to NASA. "If Earth and Mars followed perfectly circular orbits, opposition would be as close as the two planets could get," NASA said on its website. By mid-August, the planet will become fainter as Mars and Earth travel farther away from each other in their orbits around the sun. IF YOU MISS IT If you miss the Mars Close Approach, the next approach will be Oct. 6, 2020. NASA is planning several missions to Mars, including a spacecraft launch to study the center of the planet and a small helicopter that will access locations not reachable by ground travel. FOLLOW ANNALISE KNUDSON ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER.