APOD: Full Moon, Full Mars (2022 Dec 15)

[APOD Robot]

Full Moon, Full Mars

Explanation: On December 8 a full Moon and a full Mars were close, both bright and opposite the Sun in planet Earth's sky. In fact Mars was occulted, passing behind the Moon when viewed from some locations across Europe and North America. Seen from the city of Kosice in eastern Slovakia, the lunar occultation of Mars happened just before sunrise. The tantalizing spectacle was recorded in this telescopic timelapse sequence of exposures. It took about an hour for the Red Planet to disappear behind the lunar disk and then reappear as a warm-hued full Moon, the last full Moon of 2022, sank toward the western horizon. The next lunar occultation of bright planet Mars will be in the new year on January 3, when the Moon is in a waxing gibbous phase. Lunar occultations are only ever visible from a fraction of the Earth's surface, though. The January 3 occultation of Mars will be visible from parts of the South Atlantic, southern Africa, and the Indian Ocean.

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[orin stepanek]

Red Mars and Yellow Luna! A nice pair in the evening sky last week!

[Chris Peterson]

Full Moon, Full Mars

Explanation: On December 8 a full Moon and a full Mars were close, both bright and opposite the Sun in planet Earth's sky. In fact Mars was occulted, passing behind the Moon when viewed from some locations across Europe and North America. Seen from the city of Kosice in eastern Slovakia, the lunar occultation of Mars happened just before sunrise. The tantalizing spectacle was recorded in this telescopic timelapse sequence of exposures. It took about an hour for the Red Planet to disappear behind the lunar disk and then reappear as a warm-hued full Moon, the last full Moon of 2022, sank toward the western horizon. The next lunar occultation of bright planet Mars will be in the new year on January 3, when the Moon is in a waxing gibbous phase. Lunar occultations are only ever visible from a fraction of the Earth's surface, though. The January 3 occultation of Mars will be visible from parts of the South Atlantic, southern Africa, and the Indian Ocean.

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I've got about the same sequence as a video (88 minutes compressed to 6 seconds) here: http://www.cloudbait.com/20221207_mars-moon.php

[orin stepanek]

Full Moon, Full Mars

Explanation: On December 8 a full Moon and a full Mars were close, both bright and opposite the Sun in planet Earth's sky. In fact Mars was occulted, passing behind the Moon when viewed from some locations across Europe and North America. Seen from the city of Kosice in eastern Slovakia, the lunar occultation of Mars happened just before sunrise. The tantalizing spectacle was recorded in this telescopic timelapse sequence of exposures. It took about an hour for the Red Planet to disappear behind the lunar disk and then reappear as a warm-hued full Moon, the last full Moon of 2022, sank toward the western horizon. The next lunar occultation of bright planet Mars will be in the new year on January 3, when the Moon is in a waxing gibbous phase. Lunar occultations are only ever visible from a fraction of the Earth's surface, though. The January 3 occultation of Mars will be visible from parts of the South Atlantic, southern Africa, and the Indian Ocean.

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I've got about the same sequence as a video (88 minutes compressed to 6 seconds) here: http://www.cloudbait.com/20221207_mars-moon.php

Neat!

[De58te]

What does this statement really mean? "It took about an hour for the Red Planet to disappear behind the lunar disk and then reappear as a warm-hued full Moon,"

Does this mean the the red planet we call Mars, actually turned into a warm-hued Moon as it reappeared? Or does it mean somebody put a comma in the wrong place?

[Ann]

What does this statement really mean? "It took about an hour for the Red Planet to disappear behind the lunar disk and then reappear as a warm-hued full Moon,"

Does this mean the the red planet we call Mars, actually turned into a warm-hued Moon as it reappeared? Or does it mean somebody put a comma in the wrong place?

Ha ha! Good catch!

(And I'm glad I'm not the one writing the captions of the APODs... I can't imagine how many mistakes I would make...)

Ann

[Mark77]

Can someone please explain to me how this time-lapse photograph was taken? (I have no experience with astronomical or time-lapse photography.)

If the time span was over an hour and the telescope/camera was still wouldn't the moon have moved sufficiently far that it would be a 'smeared' image? On the other hand if the telescope/camera moved over time, wouldn't the bushes that appear in the background at the bottom of the image be much more blurry than they appear, and wouldn't the path of mars appear curved?

Thanks!

[Chris Peterson]

Can someone please explain to me how this time-lapse photograph was taken? (I have no experience with astronomical or time-lapse photography.)

If the time span was over an hour and the telescope/camera was still wouldn't the moon have moved sufficiently far that it would be a 'smeared' image? On the other hand if the telescope/camera moved over time, wouldn't the bushes that appear in the background at the bottom of the image be much more blurry than they appear, and wouldn't the path of mars appear curved?

Thanks!

Images like this are normally made by taking many images and stacking them carefully (in this case aligning on the Moon). I would not expect the path of Mars to be visibly curved over this time period.

[johnnydeep]

Full Moon, Full Mars

Explanation: On December 8 a full Moon and a full Mars were close, both bright and opposite the Sun in planet Earth's sky. In fact Mars was occulted, passing behind the Moon when viewed from some locations across Europe and North America. Seen from the city of Kosice in eastern Slovakia, the lunar occultation of Mars happened just before sunrise. The tantalizing spectacle was recorded in this telescopic timelapse sequence of exposures. It took about an hour for the Red Planet to disappear behind the lunar disk and then reappear as a warm-hued full Moon, the last full Moon of 2022, sank toward the western horizon. The next lunar occultation of bright planet Mars will be in the new year on January 3, when the Moon is in a waxing gibbous phase. Lunar occultations are only ever visible from a fraction of the Earth's surface, though. The January 3 occultation of Mars will be visible from parts of the South Atlantic, southern Africa, and the Indian Ocean.

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I've got about the same sequence as a video (88 minutes compressed to 6 seconds) here: http://www.cloudbait.com/20221207_mars-moon.php

Nice. So when the text says it took about an hour for the moon to traverse mars width, how does that jibe with your 88 minutes? I suppose the extra 28 minutes is taken by showing the moon before and after the occultation for a while?

[Chris Peterson]

Full Moon, Full Mars

Explanation: On December 8 a full Moon and a full Mars were close, both bright and opposite the Sun in planet Earth's sky. In fact Mars was occulted, passing behind the Moon when viewed from some locations across Europe and North America. Seen from the city of Kosice in eastern Slovakia, the lunar occultation of Mars happened just before sunrise. The tantalizing spectacle was recorded in this telescopic timelapse sequence of exposures. It took about an hour for the Red Planet to disappear behind the lunar disk and then reappear as a warm-hued full Moon, the last full Moon of 2022, sank toward the western horizon. The next lunar occultation of bright planet Mars will be in the new year on January 3, when the Moon is in a waxing gibbous phase. Lunar occultations are only ever visible from a fraction of the Earth's surface, though. The January 3 occultation of Mars will be visible from parts of the South Atlantic, southern Africa, and the Indian Ocean.

<< Previous APOD

This Day in APOD

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I've got about the same sequence as a video (88 minutes compressed to 6 seconds) here: http://www.cloudbait.com/20221207_mars-moon.php

Nice. So when the text says it took about an hour for the moon to traverse mars width, how does that jibe with your 88 minutes? I suppose the extra 28 minutes is taken by showing the moon before and after the occultation for a while?

Yeah. For my location, the entry and exit times were almost exactly an hour apart (7:45 - 8:45 MST). And then a bit before and after.

[DonB312]

I've got about the same sequence as a video (88 minutes compressed to 6 seconds) here: http://www.cloudbait.com/20221207_mars-moon.php

Interesting video, Chris. Thanks for sharing it with us. The time-lapse really enhances ones understanding of the event.

[johnnydeep]

I've got about the same sequence as a video (88 minutes compressed to 6 seconds) here: http://www.cloudbait.com/20221207_mars-moon.php

Nice. So when the text says it took about an hour for the moon to traverse mars width, how does that jibe with your 88 minutes? I suppose the extra 28 minutes is taken by showing the moon before and after the occultation for a while?

Yeah. For my location, the entry and exit times were almost exactly an hour apart (7:45 - 8:45 MST). And then a bit before and after.