Look to the sky for Mars and "Curiosity"

Congratulations to NASA for its incredible accomplishment of safely landing the advanced rover, Curiosity, on the surface of Mars! All went as planned.

You can find where Mars — and Curiosity — are located in our early evening sky. Look to the west at 9:15 p.m. for three similarly bright objects. The one on the right is Mars, lying some 155 million miles from us. (Mars is three times the distance from Earth as it was in March. This means it is now nine times dimmer, which is why the planet isn't a "standout" in the darkening sky.) The other two objects are Saturn, on top, and the star Spica, on the bottom left.

Over the next week, Mars creeps towards the gap spanning Saturn and Spica. It slides between them on  August 13 and 14.

Such is our view from Earth...