• All best wishes and hopes to NASA's Mars Curiosity rover today, shown in an artist's concept on Mars' surface shown on the next page. This SUV-sized rover - the largest NASA has ever attempted to place on Mars - is due to attempt its daring landing on the Red Planet at 10:31 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time on August 5 (5:31 UTC on August 6, 2012). Meanwhile, tonight, as darkness falls,

Mars (right), Saturn (above) and the star Spica in the evening sky on August 4, 2012. This cool image by EarthSky Facebook friend Eileen Claffey. You can see these same planets and this star - still in a triangle - on August 5 if you look west after sunset. Thank you, Eileen!

you can easily find Mars in the night sky.
• Look for Mars in a triangle with two other objects - the planet Saturn and star Spica. They will pop out fairly low in the southwest sky after sunset. At more southerly latitudes, look for the threesome to appear in a more westerly direction. All across the globe, however, the close-knit trio of lights should be pretty conspicuous at nightfall.
• It'll be fun to watch Mars with with respect to Saturn and Spica in the coming week. In a little more than a week from now, the red planet Mars will pass right in between the ringed planet Saturn and Spica, which, by the way, is the brightest star in the constellation Virgo the Maiden. And in just a few days, all three luminaries will be close enough to fit - or nearly fit - within a single binocular field. On August 20

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