Greetings and Salutations, fellow stargazers!
Tonight, your favorite blogger has a very special night sky offering for y'all to enjoy -- photos I took over a four-hour period showing the first full moon of the year occulting -- or passing in front of -- the bright planet Mars just days before its two-year close opposition to Earth!
The January full moon is traditionally known here in North America as the Full Wolf Moon. Luna officially achieved her full moon status this afternoon at about 5:30 p.m. EST here on the east coast of the United States.
Mars, like Luna, is also in opposition between the Earth and the Sun -- the Red Planet will officially reach opposition on the evening of Wednesday, January 15th when it will be the largest and brightest it will appear in the night sky for the next two years.
Mars will continue to remain in the vicinity of the Constellation Gemini The Twins until mid-April of this year and will continue to remain a bright orange-yellow "wandering star" for several months before its wider orbit will take our closest planetary neighbor further away from our Earth and it begins to dim again till the next opposition in February of 2027.
The brilliance of Luna during her full moon phase compared to Mars at its brightest makes witnessing this occultation easy enough in the hours before and after the event. Since the Full Wolf Moon will outshine our little red neighbor by around 40 thousand times, you would need a good telescope, or binocular lenses to see it in the moon's brilliant glare in the minutes before and after occultation.
I set up my camera and tripod in my backyard on this cold January evening and trained my sights on the heavenly spectacle. God granted beautifully clear skies (aside from one instance of clouds that wasn't really much of an obstacle) and all I had to do was wait.
The first shots were taken at 7:00 p.m. EST -- about 2 hours before the occultation -- with a wide shot showing how the Full Wolf Moon and Mars appeared in the eastern sky with the twin stars Castor and Pollux nearby. Then I took a close-up shot along with a filtered show of the first full moon of the year 2025.
An hour later -- about 70 minutes before the occultation -- I took photos showing the progress of the Full Wolf Moon as it slowly moved towards the east and Mars in its orbit.
In my part of South Carolina and the United States, the occultation of Mars by the Full Wolf Moon began at approximately 9:10 p.m. EST and lasted until 10:20 p.m. EST seventy minutes later. These are the photos I took of Mars disappearing and then reappearing behind Luna in the night sky.
Well my friends, once again I hope y'all enjoyed my photographs of this rare night sky event as much as I enjoyed taking them and posting them here for everyone.
I look forward to bringing y'all more night sky photography in the future, but until then keep your eyes to the night skies, y'all.
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