Look up. If you're standing outside right now—or at least once the sun has tucked itself away for the evening—and you glance toward the horizon where the sun rises, you're going to see it. It isn't a plane. It definitely isn't a drone, though it's bright enough that you might wonder for a second. That fiery, unblinking orange-red spark dominating the view is Mars.
The planet in the eastern sky tonight isn't just a tiny dot. Right now, in early 2026, we are witnessing a specific celestial alignment that makes the Red Planet look like a glowing ember someone tossed into the dark. It’s captivating.
Most people expect planets to look like stars. They don't. Stars twinkle because they are distant points of light being tossed around by our atmosphere. Mars? It’s a disc. Even if it looks like a point to your naked eye, the light reflecting off its surface is "fat" enough to punch through Earth’s atmospheric turbulence without that rapid flickering. It’s steady. It’s calm. And tonight, it’s impossible to miss if you have a clear view of the eastern horizon.
Why Mars Is Owning the Eastern Sky Right Now
Space is big. Like, really big. But our neighborhood gets crowded periodically. Mars doesn't stay this bright all the time; in fact, for long stretches of the year, it’s a tiny, pathetic little speck that you’d never notice unless you were an avid stargazer with a $2,000 rig.
But we are currently in a cycle where Earth and Mars are relatively close together in their respective orbits. Think of it like two runners on a circular track. Earth is on the inside lane, moving faster. Every 26 months, we "lap" Mars. When we do, the two planets sit on the same side of the sun. Astronomers call this "Opposition" because Mars is opposite the sun from our perspective. When the sun sets in the west, Mars rises in the east.
This proximity is why it looks so huge. Well, "huge" in astronomical terms. It’s actually tens of millions of miles away, but compared to its usual distance, it’s practically in our backyard. If you’ve noticed it looking especially "bloody" or deep orange lately, that’s not your imagination. The iron oxide (basically rust) on the Martian surface reflects sunlight with a very specific spectral signature. Tonight, the angle of that reflection is hitting us just right.
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Don't Mistake It for Jupiter
Earlier in the year, Jupiter was the big star of the show. Jupiter is usually brighter than Mars because it’s massive, but it has a different "vibe." Jupiter is creamy, white, and steady. Mars is smaller but fierier.
If you see a second bright object further up or to the south, that might be a different planet or a first-magnitude star like Aldebaran or Betelgeuse. But the one hugging the eastern horizon shortly after dinner time? That’s the Red Planet. Honestly, once you see the color difference, you can't unsee it. It stands out against the cold blue-white of the winter and spring stars like a sore thumb.
How to Get the Best View (No Telescope Required)
You don't need fancy gear. Seriously. While a telescope will show you the polar ice caps or the dark smudge of Syrtis Major, the naked-eye experience is actually more "human." It connects you to the way people looked at the sky 4,000 years ago.
- Find a dark-ish spot. You don't need to drive to the middle of the desert. Just get away from that one obnoxious LED streetlamp in your driveway.
- Give your eyes 15 minutes. Your pupils need to dilate. If you’re looking at your phone every thirty seconds, you’re never going to see the subtle hues of the planet in the eastern sky tonight.
- Look low. In the early evening, Mars is going to be low on the horizon. As the night progresses, it will arc higher and move toward the south.
The Binocular Trick
If you have a pair of birdwatching binoculars in a drawer somewhere, go get them. Even a cheap 7x50 pair will change the game. You won't see "canals" or little green men, but you will see that the light isn't a point. It becomes a distinct, tiny sphere. The color becomes even more saturated—almost like a drop of liquid orange hanging in the blackness.
The Science of the Glow: Why It Isn't Twinkling
There is a cool physics reason for why the planet in the eastern sky tonight looks so different from the stars surrounding it. It’s all about angular diameter.
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Stars are massive, but they are trillions of miles away. They are effectively "point sources" of light. When that tiny beam of light hits our atmosphere, the moving air bends it easily. This is refraction. To your eye, the light seems to jump around.
Planets are much closer. They represent a "disk" of light, even if it’s too small for your eye to resolve as a circle. Because the light is coming from a wider area, the atmospheric turbulence doesn't affect it as much. Some of the light rays get bent one way, others get bent the other way, and they basically cancel each other out. The result is a rock-steady glow.
What Experts Say About This Year's Appearance
Dr. Becky Smethurst, an astrophysicist at Oxford, often points out that these windows of visibility are the best time for amateur outreach. It’s the "gateway drug" to astronomy. When Mars is in the eastern sky like this, it’s a reminder of our place in a moving system.
It’s worth noting that Mars is currently in the constellation of Leo or Cancer (depending on the exact week of the year). This means it’s backed by stars that are much fainter than itself. This isolation makes it pop. Astronomers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) also use these close approaches to time their mission launches, though we aren't seeing a rover launch tonight. We’re just seeing the leftover light from a sun 93 million miles away bouncing off a dusty rock 40 million miles away.
Common Misconceptions About the Eastern Sky
People get a lot of stuff wrong about what they see up there. Let's clear some of it up:
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- "Mars will look as big as the Moon." This is an old internet hoax that refuses to die. It started back in 2003 and pops up every year. If Mars ever looked as big as the moon, we’d be in serious gravitational trouble. It will always look like a very bright star to the naked eye.
- "It’s only visible at midnight." Nope. Because it's at opposition, it rises exactly as the sun sets. You can see it as soon as the twilight fades.
- "You need a dark sky park." Mars is bright enough to be seen from the middle of Times Square or London. Light pollution doesn't hide planets nearly as much as it hides galaxies or nebulae.
How to Track It Over the Next Few Weeks
The sky isn't static. If you look at Mars tonight, and then look again at the same time next week, you’ll notice it has moved slightly against the background stars. This "wandering" is actually where the word planet comes from (the Greek planētēs, meaning "wanderer").
Right now, Mars is likely in "retrograde." This is a weird optical illusion. Because Earth is passing Mars on the inside track, it looks like Mars is moving backward in the sky. Imagine you’re passing a slower car on the highway; for a few seconds, that car looks like it’s moving backward relative to the trees in the distance. It’s the same thing here.
Practical Steps for Your Stargazing Session
If you want to make the most of the planet in the eastern sky tonight, do this:
- Check the Weather: Use an app like Astropheric or Clear Outside. It gives you "transparency" and "seeing" ratings, which tell you if the air is steady enough for a crisp view.
- Identify the Neighbors: Find the "Sickle" of Leo. It looks like a backwards question mark. Mars is currently hanging out near that region.
- Use an App: Download SkyView or Stellarium. You can point your phone at the sky, and it will use your GPS to confirm exactly what you're looking at.
- Wait for the Moon: If the Moon is nearby, it might wash out the planet slightly, but it also makes for a great photo op. Mars and the Moon together in the eastern sky is a classic "conjunction" that looks incredible in phone photos if you use "Night Mode."
Tonight is a perfect night to just stop for a second. We spend so much time looking at screens—myself included—that we forget there is a literal giant red world hanging over our heads. It’s a rock with canyons deeper than the Grand Canyon and volcanoes taller than Everest. And right now, it’s just sitting there in the east, waiting for you to notice it.
Go outside. Look East. Find the red one. That’s it. That’s Mars.
Check your local sunset time. About 45 minutes after that, the planet will be high enough above the horizon haze to show its true color. If you have kids, take them out for five minutes. It’s one of the few things in nature that’s totally free, requires zero subscription, and actually lives up to the hype.