Where is Mars tonight?

How high does Mars get tonight?

Mars’s height above the horizon from midday to midday, in New York. The shaded part is dark sky. Mars is easiest to see when it’s both up and the sky is dark.

How do you find Mars in the sky?

1. Go out after 1:04 AM, when Mars rises in the east-northeast, or at 6:30 AM, when it’s highest in a dark sky.
2. Look southeast, about 59° up (90° is straight overhead).
3. Look for a bright orange-yellow point of light. You don’t need a telescope.

Space.com’s Joe Rao describes Mars this autumn as a bright orange-yellow “star”.[10] At magnitude +1.1 tonight, it’s far brighter than the faintest stars you can see without a telescope, about magnitude 6.5 under perfect skies, NASA says.[6]

When is Mars at opposition?

Feb 19, 2027, in Leo. At oppositionOppositionOpposition is when Earth passes between the Sun and Mars, so Mars rises at sunset, stays up all night and looks its brightest — about every 26 months.More in the glossary, Mars lies directly on the opposite side of Earth from the Sun. That’s around the time it’s closest to Earth, so it looks its biggest and brightest, NASA explains.[7] It rises at sunset and is up all night.

This is a modest opposition. Mars comes within about 101.4 million km, while the closest oppositions bring it within about 55 million km.[5] ALPO calls 2026–27 an aphelic apparition: Mars reaches opposition near its farthest point from the Sun.[8] At magnitude −1.3 it will be about 9 times brighter than today, but well short of its record, −2.94.[5] Through a telescope its disk will be about 13.8 arcseconds across.

The opposition after this one is on Mar 25, 2029, in Virgo, when Mars comes within about 96.8 million km (60.2 million mi).[2][12]

What’s coming up in the sky?

• Oct 11Mars passes in front of the Beehive star cluster (M44) in Cancer: an attractive sight in binoculars before dawn.[9][11]
• Oct 30Mars moves from Cancer into Leo, where it stays until July 2027. JPL’s Horizons puts the crossing on Oct 30 (UTC); Space.com gives Oct 31.[2][10]
• Nov 16Mars passes 1.2° from Jupiter.[11]
• Nov 26Mars passes 1.7° above the star Regulus.[11]
• Jan 10–Apr 1Mars drifts backward against the stars (retrograde), in a loop that stays inside Leo.[8]
• Feb 19Opposition: Mars rises at sunset, is up all night and is at its brightest of this pass.[8][9][12]

How we calculate this

Sources

1. NASA JPL Solar System Dynamics — Approximate Positions of the PlanetsPrimary · checked Oct 4, 2026
2. NASA JPL Solar System Dynamics — Horizons System (used to check our numbers, and for the constellation table)Primary · checked Oct 4, 2026
3. US Naval Observatory — Rise, Set, and Twilight DefinitionsPrimary · checked Oct 4, 2026
4. Astronomy and Computing (arXiv) — Computing apparent planetary magnitudes for The Astronomical Almanac (Mallama & Hilton, 2018)Primary · checked Oct 4, 2026
5. NASA NSSDCA — Mars Fact SheetPrimary · checked Oct 4, 2026
6. NASA Night Sky Network — Check Your Sky Quality with Orion!Primary · checked Oct 4, 2026
7. NASA Science — What’s Up: January 2025 Skywatching Tips from NASAPrimary · checked Oct 4, 2026
8. ALPO (Jeffrey D. Beish) — The 2026–2027 aphelic apparition of MarsSecondary · checked Oct 4, 2026
9. EarthSky — Mars sometimes is bright and sometimes is faintSecondary · checked Oct 4, 2026
10. Space.com (Joe Rao) — Jupiter disappears behind the moon, Saturn shines at its best, and Mars meets the Beehive: October 2026 planet guideSecondary · checked Oct 4, 2026
11. Space.com — What to expect from the planets in 2026: key dates and sky eventsSecondary · checked Oct 4, 2026
12. BBC Sky at Night Magazine — Mars opposition 2027 and the Red planet at its bestSecondary · checked Oct 4, 2026