On Wednesday (Dec. 7), skywatchers worldwide were dealt with to a celestial program as the moon eclipsed Mars in the night sky.
The uncommon occasion, referred to as a lunar occultation, describes one heavenly body– in this case, Mars– appearing to vanish or conceal behind another– in this case, the moon. This occultation was especially notable since Mars was at opposition, indicating Earth was straight in between it and the sun, making the Red Planet appear especially intense in the night sky.
Related: See Mars at opposition in these totally free webcasts tonight (Dec. 8)
Last night’s occultation of Mars by the moon produced some stunning images from observers worldwide. The Griffith Observatory in California had a terrific view of the moon and Mars enrolling on Dec. 7 and captured a time-lapse of the Red Planet vanishing behind Earth’s celestial buddy as seen in the video above.
In addition, skywatchers all over the world have actually been publishing stunning pictures of the lunar occultation of Mars on social networks, using a take a look at among the year’s most-watched celestial occasions.
Astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy captured Mars and the moon(opens in brand-new tab) in a stunning close-up:
This is the minute Mars glimpsed out from behind our moon after being concealed for an hour. This shot was caught utilizing my biggest telescope and an unique high-speed electronic camera. Seeing another world increasing on the horizon of our moon was such a surreal experience. pic.twitter.com/8IctbVXuUMDecember 8, 2022
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Spaceflight professional photographer John Kraus captured a spectacular shot of Mars(opens in brand-new tab) as it appeared behind the moon following occultation:
Amateur astrophotographer Tom Williams produced a beautiful picture of the moon and Mars by integrating numerous photos, and provided a description of how he made the image(opens in brand-new tab) on Twitter.
The 2022 Lunar #Occultation of #Mars! This is a crop of a larger image, and reveals the red world on it’s descent behind the eastern lunar limb recorded last night from house. Sinus Gomer is main with Syrtis Major at leading. See thread for processing. What an occasion! #astrophotography pic.twitter.com/IBNiW8mA9cDecember 8, 2022
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Amateur astronomer and professional photographer Tom Glenn produced a spectacular picture of Mars(opens in brand-new tab) increasing above the moon by stacking 15 various photo frames.
#Mars increasing above the lunar limb. This is a stack of 15 frames recorded within a 2s period throughout completion of the occultation by the #Moon. Recorded with a C9.25 Edge HD and ASI678 mc. pic.twitter.com/xrDiI3d7keDecember 8, 2022
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Astronomer and science communicator Phil Plait captured Mars sneaking behind the moon(opens in brand-new tab) simply prior to occultation.
The Moon and Mars a couple of minutes prior to #occultation. I shot this through my bed room window utilizing my identifying ‘scope and a phonecam (that’s why there’s a strong Moon reflection to the upper left). Take a look at the color contrast! The occultation was cool, taki … https://t.co/lpxYVpmbmi pic.twitter.com/SUISrvttx7December 8, 2022
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The lunar occultation of Mars by the complete Cold Moon was especially notable since the Red Planet just appears at opposition every 26 months, so the next opposition will not happen up until January 2025.
Mars was likewise specifically near to Earth throughout this occasion, which happened while the world was at perigee, or its closest indicate Earth in its orbit. The record for closest technique in between Mars and Earth was embeded in 2003 at simply 34.8 million miles (56 million kilometers); according to NASA, Mars and Earth will not be this close for another 265 years, up until2287
Editor’s Note: If you snap a fantastic picture of either Mars at opposition or the lunar occultation and want to share it with Space.com’s readers, send your picture( s), remarks, and your name and area to spacephotos@space.com
Editor’s Note: This piece was upgraded at 4: 30 p.m. EST (2130 GMT) on Dec. 8 to show that the record for Mars’ closest method to Earth was embeded in 2003.
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