• Mars was beautiful near the moon last night, and, as soon as darkness falls on this May Day 2012, you'll be able to see Mars again as a bright starlike object shining fairly close to tonight's moon. The other bright object near the moon on May 1 really is a star: Regulus in the constellation Leo the Lion. The moon, Mars and Regulus all will drift westward throughout the night, remaining in our sky until well after midnight.
• From northerly latitudes - like those in the U.S., Canada and Europe - the moon and Mars shine in the southern sky at nightfall and early evening,

with Mars shining above the moon. At latitudes to the south of the equator, the moon and Mars appear in the northern sky, with Mars shining below the moon.
• No matter where you are on Earth, though, Mars is found near tonight's waxing gibbous moon. What is a gibbous moon? It means that the moon appears to us on Earth as more than half-lighted but less than full.
• The star Regulus is the point of light to the immediate west of Mars. As seen from mid-northern latitudes, Regulus appears to the right of Mars. At southerly latitudes, Regulus shines to the left of Mars. Regulus is the brightest star in Leo. It's blue-white in color, while Mars appears reddish. Binoculars will help you notice the contrast in their colors, and you'll notice the color contrast even more when the moon moves away.
• Earth and Mars are very similar worlds, although Earth is bigger. Both rotate in about 24 hours, meaning a day on Mars is nearly the same length as a day on Earth. Amazingly enough, the tilts of Earth's rotational axis and Mars' rotational axis are quite similar, too, meaning that the seasons on the two worlds are similar. Earth's axis tilts some 23.5 degrees from perpendicular with respect to our orbital plane around the sun. For Mars, the tilt is around 25 degrees.