I live around Houston, Texas and I'm taking advantage of Earth hour to look at the stars. I've found two objects that I think might be Mars. Both of them are in roughly the same plane as Venus and Jupiter. Both are closer to Venus than Jupiter. One of them has a reddish tint and is higher in the sky than Venus, and the other is closer to the horizon than venus. It is 8:50 as I type this. Is one of these Mars?
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$\begingroup$ March: space.com/28735-best-planets-march-night-sky.html April: space.com/25387-brightest-planets-april-night-sky.html Typical search to get these: google.com/… $\endgroup$– Wayfaring StrangerCommented Mar 29, 2015 at 7:45
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2 Answers
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At that time (20:50), and that location (Houston, Tx), Mars was closer to the horizon. You can see that in the sky-chart provided by heavens-above.com (attached below).
I cannot tell what's the other object you describe, but if you are not sure whether something is a planet or a star, the planets doesn't twinkle whether the star does.
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You will be able to recognize Mars easily from its red color. Mars looks like a red tiny dot in the night sky. You can always use apps such as Google sky map. You simply point your phone in the direction of the red dot and your phone will identify the object for you.
