The close approach, or "opposition", of Mars occured early this morning. Within hours of that moment, the planet was imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope.

If you've missed the "magic moment" due to bad weather or bad timing, don't give up. Some news reports made it sound like there would be a spectacular enhancement of the Red Planet's appearance at the moment of opposition. Actually, the view will be virtually the same for the next few days. The apparent size of the planet seen through a telescope will gradually start to decrease over the next few weeks.

Our knowledge and picture of Mars has changed dramatically over my lifetime. I was ten years old when the Mariner IV spacecraft provided the first closeup images of the planet in 1965. When I was younger than that, I recall drawing sketches of Mars based on old books. My sketches included the legendary "canals" on Mars which, it turned out, do not exist.