2025, April 10: Mars-Gemini Alignment

April 10, 2025: Mars aligns with Castor and Pollux during nighttime hours, a Mars-Gemini alignment.

Jupiter, Mars, Moon gather, August 27, 2024
Image Caption, 2024, August 27: Jupiter, Mars, Moon gather before sunrise

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by Jeffrey L. Hunt

Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 6:18 a.m. CDT; Sunset, 7:27 p.m. CDT.  Check local sources for sunrise and sunset times. Times are calculated by the US Naval Observatory’s MICA computer program.

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Mars-Gemini Alignment

Mars-Gemini Alignment, April 10, 2025
Chart Caption – 2025, April 10: The Mars-Gemini alignment is high in the southwestern sky after sundown.

Tonight, Mars aligns with Castor and Pollux, the Gemini Twins.  By alignment, an imaginary line that begins at Castor, extended through Pollux, passes through Mars.

This is the third alignment during this Martian appearance. The first occurred on October 30th as Mars marched eastward.  The second occurred on January 16th, during the planet’s retrograde.  After direct or eastward motion occurred on February 23rd, Mars has moved back to the imaginary line again.

Future Alignments

The largest canyon in the Solar System cuts a wide swath across the face of Mars. Named Valles Marineris, the grand valley extends over 3,000 kilometers long, spans as much as 600 kilometers across, and delves as much as 8 kilometers deep.
The largest canyon in the Solar System cuts a wide swath across the face of Mars. Named Valles Marineris, the grand valley extends over 3,000 kilometers long, spans as much as 600 kilometers across, and delves as much as 8 kilometers deep. (NASA)

Single alignments are not so rare.  The next one occurs September 25th, 2026, followed by a Castor-Pollux-Mars alignment on September 2nd, 2028.  On that morning Mars is 3.6° to the lower left of brilliant Venus.

The next time Mars aligns three times during a single apparition is during the 2056/2057 opposition window when Earth passes between the planet and the sun on January 24, 2057.  As Mars marches eastward, it crosses the imaginary alignment line on September 26, then again on February 19th while retrograding, and once more on March 22nd as it advances eastward again.

Tonight, find the Mars-Gemini alignment high in the southwest an hour after sunset. The planet’s brightness fades as Earth continues to move away. The gap is nearly 115 million miles.

Mars is dimmer than the star Procyon, the sixth brightest star visible from the mid-northern latitudes, nearly 20° to the planet’s lower left, but brighter than Castor and Pollux.

Moon, Bright Planets

Look for bright Jupiter less than halfway up in the west, while the bright moon is in the southeast.

During morning twilight, brilliant Venus is about 10° up in the east.

Look for the alignment of Mars with Gemini’s brightest stars tonight.

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