If you're out in the cold tonight, and if the skies clear off enough, look for a striking conjunction of the moon and the planet Mars, high in the eastern sky after sunset (and almost directly overhead in the late evening hours).

The two orbs will be separated by less than a half-degree. That's less than the width of your finger held at arm's length.

Mars is only a month past its closest approach to the Earth for this year, and still very bright, and still rather reddish compared with the bright, white stars of the winter constellations. Imagine - sunlight streams outward from the sun, bounces off the surface of Mars, gets tweaked by the iron oxide in the dirt up there such that the reflected light we see - 60 million miles away - appears slightly reddish. Amazing.

If you miss it tonight, or if skies are too cloudy, try again Sunday night. The moon won't have moved too far east of the moon and, while not as striking as tonight's view, it will still be worth a look. Here's more.

Several faithful readers emailed me last month after they spotted a similar - though not so close - conjunction of the full moon and Mars on Christmas Eve. This one is better, even though the moon is not quite full this time. Enjoy.