The Red Planet and the sun sit directly opposite each other in Earth's sky today, which is why the formation is known as an opposition of Mars. You can watch two live shows about the Mars opposition here on Space.com beginning at 7 p.m. EDT (2300 GMT) tonight, courtesy of the Virtual Telescope Project and the Slooh. You can also watch the two webcasts directly via the Virtual Telescope Project website and Slooh website.

During opposition, Mars will shine nearly 10 times more brightly than a 1st-magnitude star, and some of the planet's surface features will show up through backyard telescopes, Slooh officials said.