WASHINGTON - Mars will be unusually bright this Christmas Eve and the moon will be shining full - a development that might make Santa Claus rethink his need for Rudolph's red nose....

...Mars will outshine the brightest star and won't be as noticeable in the sky for nine more years, Horkheimer said. The Hubble Space Telescope took a picture of Mars, which came closest to Earth on Dec. 18 but it will be brighter on Christmas Eve because of its position opposite the sun.

"It will be a brilliant red light," Horkheimer said.

"It is so bright, it knocks your socks off."

He added this would allow Santa to give Rudolph a pink slip, albeit a temporary one.

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Good thing my daughter got a telescope for Christmas last year, we're going to be sitting outside on Christmas Eve! This is so cool.

I think they're absolutely correct, glorybebe...

Even last night, Mars was just adjacent to the Moon, and clearly visible that close to the essentially full lunar orb, only a degree or so off of the Moon...a spectacular sight!


It is cool. Have a happy Christmas eve watching!

Yes! I don't need to take up smoking as an excuse to go outside to get away from family.

Yes I finally got the chance to see Mars, absolutely outstanding. Wonderful little 'addon' to Christmas eve it is.

It's supposed to be overcast tonight and I won't see them!

I was affraid that would happen to me aswell, it was overcast here for a week, now everything is clear. This reminds me how a large number of people miss solar and lunar eclipses due to this atmospheric phenomena.

Well, you will have to post how awesome it was so that at least I can live vicariously through you! LOL

Great! It's Sod's Law isn't it. Where I live in the UK, I've been freezing my butt off all week because the skies have been clear so any heat during the day immediately dissipates at night. Now, when I need a clear sky, it's spent all day raining and there's now a thick mist.
I wanna move!!

I was getting all excited when I saw a couple of spots of blue in the sky, but they closed up again. I'm going to keep my fingers crossed that it clears off in time to see it.

Yeah we had slight cloud cover here last night, but still could see the moon and it's big side kick, wonderful.

I saw the Moon as a hazy glow in the clouds. Which, of course, meant that there was no hope of seeing Mars.

I hope someone got some pictures of the near conjunction on the 23rd!

That was really something.
On the 24th, the separation was about 10 degrees. Where it could be seen, it was surely lovely, but those two being so close on the 23rd...that was worth some astrophotography!

This guy managed it. LOOK

Thanks for the link, Belial! What an awesome pic of the moon! Too bad about Mars.

That's what I'm talkin' about...

That close, 12-23-07.

Pretty picture. I like how the moon is colored.

*Saves.*