Mars Close Approach

This table list all of the close approaches for the next 100 years. If the predictions are a little off, it's because the calculations were made a long time ago on my Apple //e. The table lists the month, day, and year for the close approach. The minimum distance to Earth is shown in astronomical units and the maximum diameter is shown in arc sec. There is a graph below the table that plots this parameter over time. This is the important parameter for viewing, because the larger this number is, the larger Mars appears in the telescope. Note that the next three close approaches will be very good.

The next two columns shown are right ascension and declination in J2000 coordinates. The format for right ascension is hh.mmss and the format for declination is dd.mmss. JD is the Julian Date corresponding to the month day and year and Delta days is the number of days since the last close approach. For the years 1993-2099 the average of this number is 779.9 days.

The graph shows that peaks occur in the maximum diameter about every 15 years. So if you miss the next three close approaches, you'll have to wait about 15 years for another set to occur.

Mars Close Approaches
This table list all of the close approaches for the next 100 years. If the predictions are a little off, it's because the calculations were made a long time ago on my Apple //e. The table lists the month, day, and year for the close approach. The minimum distance to Earth is shown in astronomical units and the maximum diameter is shown in arc sec. There is a graph below the table that plots this parameter over time. This is the important parameter for viewing, because the larger this number is, the larger Mars appears in the telescope. Note that the next three close approaches will be very good. The next two columns shown are right ascension and declination in J2000 coordinates. The format for right ascension is hh.mmss and the format for declination is dd.mmss. JD is the Julian Date corresponding to the month day and year and Delta days is the number of days since the last close approach. For the years 1993-2099 the average of this number is 779.9 days. The graph shows that peaks occur in the maximum diameter about every 15 years. So if you miss the next three close approaches, you'll have to wait about 15 years for another set to occur.
	Click here to download the table in a comma separated variable format.
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