let's go to mars hey there stargazers
I'm James Albury director of the key

cassava plop planetarium in Gainesville
Florida and I'm Dean Regas astronomer

for the Cincinnati Observatory we're
here to help you find your way around

the sky the planet Mars is back in the
nighttime sky and looking big bright and

beautiful and read exactly currently we
have several unmanned spacecraft

circling Mars and to you rolling on mars
so it got us thinking what would it be

like to visit mars up close in person so
this week will show you where to find

mars in the earthly sky and then take
you on a journey across millions of

miles to the red planet so let's get ok
we have asked I set up for Thursday June

16th facing south where close the summer
solstice so it doesn't get really dark

until after 10 p.m. so our view here is
at 11 p.m. I love any excuse to stay up

late with the stars and planets and
there's a lot to see in the southern sky

this week on Thursday will be having the
waxing gibbous moon above Harz yep that

bright reddish star is actually the red
planet cool and it's so easy to find

right now over to the left you'll spot
to fainter objects the dinner one is the

star Antares the beating heart of the
constellation Scorpius Scorpion and the

broader one on the left is the ringed
planet Saturn my favorite but I'll stay

focused on mars since that's our
destination today

good idea but first let's see how things
change over the week on Friday night the

moon will shift to the left and on
Saturday night it will cozy up next to

saturn nice then on Sunday and Monday
the moon will continue on its way but

still leave our two planets and one
bright shining star to the south now

comes the fun part let's blast off from
ours and take you in for a closer look

this week marks is almost 50 million
miles from Earth and Mars are properly

position it takes a rock at about seven
months to make the trip but will get you

there in a few seconds as we approach
the red planet will first notice that

it's not super red it looks more orange
brown pink and rusty and that's because

there's a lot of honor in the ranks of
mars that actually have rusted over time

the bright white areas are the polar ice
caps there's lots of dry ice around the

martian polls but also a fair amount of
water rights maybe we can ship off a few

pieces and add them to our drinks before
we land let's fly by Mars is to first up

is da most the smaller on its left at
eight miles across and circle the planet

every 30 hours then we come to the
larger moon Phobos it's still very small

only about 14 miles why despite being
covered in creators photos might make a

great base of operations for future
manned missions it could be a stopover

for astronauts or an orbiting
observatory to watch the planet more

closely someday astronaut space shuttle
down to Mars and back from this little

moon alright we made it when the first
humans to reach the surface of mars and

what have you

most of ours looks like a dry desolate
orange desert with rocks strewn about

and deep craters any water on Mars is
hidden below the brown or is frozen in

the ice caps but you can also find tall
mountains like Olympus months which is

three times taller than any Mountaineers
and deep valleys like valise Mariners

which is 2500 miles long and five times
deeper than the Grand Canyon plus

there's two Rover still rolling on mars
hey look there's the Curiosity rover

climbing Mount sharp a curiosity we may
still be decades away from sending

humans to Mars but one can always dream

so this week look for Mars in the
southern sky after dark and when you

find a dream about taking a journey to
the red planet you can visit it's two

moons and kick up some red Martian dust
it's all there when you keep looking up