Irish sky gazers are being urged to prepare for a clear sighting of Mars tonight as the red planet is due to be seen by the naked eye.
Astronomy Ireland explained that the fourth planet from the sun will make a rare close approach to the moon on January 3.
The space experts also confirmed that this stunning space event will be visible from 6:00 pm.
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David Moore, Founder of Astronomy Ireland explained that: "Mars is one of the brightest 'stars' in the sky as it was at its closest to Earth just a few weeks ago.
"So it will be a spectacular sight to the naked eye all Tuesday evening as it blazes above the Moon and we don't want people to miss this spectacle of nature that can easily be seen with the naked eye even from brightly lit cities!"
Although very spectacular to the naked eye, the Moon and Mars are not really close, it is just a line-of-sight effect.
Mars is actually twice as wide as the Moon, at4,200 miles compared to the Moon's 2,160 mile diameter.
But at 97 million km, Mars is 240 times further away than the Moon, which is only 0.4 million km from us.
Moore said: "This is one of the most amazing sights in the sky of the whole month and you do NOT need any telescopes or binoculars to see it.
"So we want the whole country to enjoy this very bright sight from about 6pm on when the sky gets dark, for several hours."
Mars only comes close to earth roughly every 2.1 years, meaning it will be exceptionally bright to the naked eye - even without a telescope.
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