The month of May is for Martians. If you haven’t noticed, take a peek outside around 10 o’clock Friday night and the bright red planet Mars is rising in the east. Mars will be in opposition at the end of this month, the closest to the Earth in a dozen years.

This week, Mars is about 54 million miles away. That is close. And it is going to get closer. By the end of May, Mars will be at its closest, at 46 million miles. What does this mean to you? Only that Mars will be bright, a shiny ruby red planet decorating our evening sky for well into summer.

Mars is visually a disappointment when looked at in a small amateur telescope. It is so small. You’d get a far better image if you make friends with a university astronomer with access to a telescope as big as your house. And that is perhaps one of the reasons why Mars was a mystery to astronomers for so many years. This is a small planet, not much bigger than our moon, that gets close to the Earth every two years and taps on everyone’s imagination.

Mars is in the Southern sky all night. It resides in Scorpius, the southernmost zodiac constellation. Mars is near the bright red star Antares. But Antares is no match for Mars. And a short distance to the east of both, there is the ringed planet Saturn. Saturn always is a far more interesting planet in even the smallest of telescopes. Saturn has rings.