Yellowknife (Aug 27/03) - Stargazers will be in for a treat today when they look at the night sky.

Mars will be the closest to Earth it has been in a few thousand years.

James Pugsley, founder of Astronomy North and a back yard astronomer, said there has been a lot of hype around Mars recently because of it's proximity to Earth but there's not a big difference from other times in the year.

Pugsley recommends the best spot to view Mars is from Pilot's monument, away from the light pollution of the city.

With Mars being over 55 million kilometres away from Earth it will be a little brighter than usual. Pugsley said the view will be even better for people with a good telescope or binoculars.

"Using telescopes people will be able to see some of the ice caps, which are interesting," he said.

Mars will rise in the southern horizon just after dark and will appear as a bright reddish star.

Pugsley said he hopes with this new attention on Mars will create more interest in astronomy.

"I'm going to be at Pilot's Monument Wednesday night and people are welcome to come out. Also," he said, "I want to get people interested in astronomy."

To put the solar system into perspective Pugsley used the example of Yellowknife. If Mars was a grapefruit sitting on the runway at Yellowknife Airport, Earth would be a basketball sitting on top of the Pilot's Monument and the sun would be a house in Dettah.