#MARS VS #JUPITER: Mars is a small planet, and usually it looks puny next to a giant like Jupiter. Not so last night. On Dec. 1st, Thomas Williamson photographed both Mars and Jupiter from his back yard in Albuquerque, New Mexico; then he placed the images side by side. "Mars looked pretty big," he says.

Why? Mars is unusually close to Earth, less than 51 million miles away. Because of this proximity, the Martian disk has swollen to 17 arcseconds in diameter, a fair fraction of Jupiter.

Technically, Dec. 1st was the night of closest approach, but Mars will be almost equally nearby all week long. "Beautiful and bright orange, Mars is high in the sky near midnight. It is wonderful to see in the eyepiece!" says Williamson.
https://spaceweather.com/