Night Sky Photography -- 09-06-2020 -- The Moon & Mars

Good morning, y'all! 

 

I was up late last night in order to get a couple of really good shots of our beautiful Luna, now in her waning gibbous phase, joining our closest planetary neighbor, Mars, in the east.  

 

As you can see from the first photo, Mars appears as a small red star just above Luna in the night sky, just barely missing the point of occultation -- or when one heavenly body passes in front of another -- by only a couple of degrees. 

 

My second photo is a close-up shot showing the waning gibbous moon and the shadows along the craters with Mars just above the Earth shadow on the surface. 

 

At present Mars is the 5th-brightest celestial object in the sky, after the sun, the moon, Venus and Jupiter respectively. However, Mars is brightening by the day as it moves closer to its October 13th opposition this year, and by late September, it will match Jupiter in brilliance as the Red Planet moves closer to Earth in its orbit. 

Well, I hope y'all enjoyed my photos and as always keep your eyes on the night skies!