by Edward Herrick-Gleason
Tonight, the full moon will occult–move in front of–Mars from our perspective. Also, from the perspective of most North American, European and Middle Eastern observers. See the image below:
Observers outside of this region will only see the moon appearing to move close to Mars. While such a Mars-moon appulse will dazzle the senses (especially since the moon is full and Mars is at opposition and therefore at its brightest), these other observers won’t have the opportunity to watch Mars “blink”out behind the moon. Observing a lunar occultation of a planet is particularly pleasing because, unlike the pinpoint stars that simply “wink” out when the moon passes in front of them, disc-like planets vanish gradually, over a period of 30 – 45 seconds.
Tonight, observers in our region will want to venture out around 10:45 p.m. At this time, the Moon will be within less than half a degree of Mars. For the next few minutes, one will see the moon approach and then gradually move in front of Mars. Refer to the following time-line:
- Mars will disappear behind the moon at 10:57 p.m. EST. The occultation will occur in the southeastern sky at an altitude of 70.1 degrees.
- Mars will reappear at 11:24 p.m, altitude 71.3 degrees.
We’ll see this occultation because of a chance alignment between Earth, the moon and Mars. Although lunar occultations of Mars occur approximately once every 14 years, tonight’s event is particularly special because the moon is full (100% illuminated) and Mars, being at opposition, is at its biggest (17.06″ in angular diameter) and at its brightest (magnitude -1.9: 1.6 times brighter than Sirius.)
Provided the weather is clear–a dicey issue, actually–one can behold the coupling of Mars and Artemis. Who on Earth would want to miss that?
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