Mars is clearly visible in our eastern sky early evening at the moment. I have heard that Mars is in opposition at the moment. That means that it is directly on the opposite side of the Earth to the Sun. So Sun, Earth and Moon form a line.
Mars takes almost twice as long as Earth to go round the Sun so I'm going to approximate to a two year orbital period. In 6 months, Earth has gone half way round the Sun but Mars has only gone quarter of the way.
In a year's time, Mars will be on the opposite side of the Sun to Earth.
