Come Monday night time (Jan. 30), the central and northern United States and southern Canada will be capable of watch as a waxing gibbous moon will slide carefully beneath the planet Mars.
However throughout elements of southern California, the Southern Rockies and the Southwest Desert, in addition to a lot of Texas and Oklahoma and down into the Deep South together with Southern Georgia and Florida, the moon will cross in entrance of Mars, inflicting an occultation or eclipse of the planet. It will also be seen all through all of Mexico, Cuba and far of Central America.
This occasion happens almost eight weeks after the moon occulted Mars throughout a lot of North America (excluding elements of the Southeast U.S. and the Atlantic Seaboard). On that occasion, the moon was absolutely illuminated whereas Mars was at opposition to the sun and shone at a stunning magnitude of almost -2.
Associated: Rare Mars eclipse by the full moon wows stargazers with occultation (video)
Learn extra: Night sky, January 2023: What you can see tonight [maps]
For this upcoming sport of hide-and-seek, nonetheless, the moon can be not fairly so vivid (74% illuminated) and neither will Mars. Having retreated 29.63 million miles (47.68 million km) farther away from Earth since its December lunar encounter, Mars now seems lower than one-quarter as vivid.
Nonetheless, shining at a magnitude of -0.3, it nonetheless ranks as an excellent object. Among the many stars, solely Sirius and Canopus shine brighter and to even informal observers, yellow-orange Mars will probably name consideration to itself to even informal viewers trying up towards the moon on this explicit night time.
For many elements of nation, the occultation, or closest strategy of the moon relative to Mars, will happen excessive within the sky, although within the Northeast U.S. and Atlantic Canada, closest strategy between the moon and Mars will come after native midnight (early Tuesday morning, Jan. 31) with each objects hovering solely a couple of quarter of a method up above the west-northwest horizon. From Puerto Rico and the Caribbean, the moon and Mars will hovering low above the west-northwest horizon.
Spectacular graze
What’s going to make this a much more putting and interesting occultation in comparison with the one which occurred in early December is the truth that not like final time when Mars disappeared and reappeared from behind the moon’s absolutely illuminated brightly-lit rim, this time — because the moon approaches from the west — Mars will seem to fade behind the moon’s darkish limb. Reappearance will happen from behind the intense limb.
As well as, those that are arrange alongside the graze line — which is definitely a path, measuring roughly 13 miles (21 km) in width — Mars will seem like solely partially lined by the moon. In analyzing the map of the contiguous U.S. (see .jpg file), that part of the graze path outlined in inexperienced will see Mars graze the illuminated portion of the moon’s disk, whereas alongside the part outlined in black, Mars will graze previous the darkish/unilluminated portion of the moon’s disk. These throughout the graze path will see, for a number of minutes or extra, the fascinating sight of Mars interacting with the rugged lunar terrain, partly disappearing, then reappearing behind lunar mountains and valleys.
Notable cities positioned inside or very close to to the graze path embody Fresno, CA, Kanab, UT, Oklahoma Metropolis, OK, and Brunswick, GA.
Under is a timetable itemizing 12 chosen cities that may see Mars disappearing after which reappearing from behind the moon.
The desk provides civil instances of Mars’ disappearance and reappearance (disappearance and reappearance instances are for Mars’ heart). For instances listed with an asterisk (*) the calendar date is Jan. 31.
Desk was tailored from information supplied by the International Occultation Timing Association (IOTA). (opens in new tab)
Location | Time zone | Mars disappears | Mars reappears |
---|---|---|---|
Los Angeles | PST | 8:35 p.m. | 9:29 p.m. |
Tucson | MST | 9:44 p.m. | 10:51 p.m. |
Las Vegas | MST | 9:55 p.m. | 10:24 p.m. |
Alamogordo | MST | 9:57 p.m. | 10:56 p.m. |
Mexico Metropolis | CST | 10:59 p.m. | 12:27 a.m. |
Austin | CST | 11:10 p.m. | 12:12 a.m. |
New Orleans | CST | 11:26 p.m. | 12:16 a.m. |
Cell | CST | 11:32 p.m. | 12:13 a.m. |
Greenwood | CST | 11:40 p.m. | 11:57 p.m. |
Miami | EST | 12:37 a.m.* | 1:27 a.m. |
Valdosta | EST | 12:45 a.m.* | 1:08 a.m. |
San Juan | AST | 1:48 a.m.* | 2:35 a.m. |
Not like a star — which seems as a speck of sunshine even by way of a big telescope — and appears to instantaneously disappear and reappears from behind the disk of the moon, Mars seems as a disk measuring almost 11 arc seconds throughout. So, not like a star, the crimson planet will seem to regularly disappear from or reappear into view. About 30 seconds will elapse for the disk of Mars to utterly disappear the place the occultation is sort of central and lasts for near an hour and a half, equivalent to at Mexico Metropolis, Mexico. The disk of Mars will take longer to utterly disappear and reappear farther north the place the planet goes behind the moon extra obliquely. For Greenwood, Mississippi, the place the occultation will final solely 17 minutes, it is going to take two minutes for the moon to completely cowl, then uncover Mars.
At any location, the period of reappearance is about the identical as of disappearance.
For others … a close to miss
For the remainder of North America, this can be an exceedingly shut strategy of the moon to Mars (referred to as an appulse). The moon, transferring across the Earth in an easterly course at roughly its personal diameter every hour will appear to creep slowly towards and in the end move just under the ochre planet. Though the central and northern US and southern Canada will miss out on an occultation, Mars will prominently stand out, because it slowly seems to glide above the moon. For locations like Huntsville, Tulsa and Atlanta, Mars will come to inside simply 1 arc minute of the moon’s limb; they’re going to nearly appear to the touch one another. To the bare eye, Mars will appear like an amber jewel on the higher fringe of the moon.
After closest strategy, the moon will transfer slowly away from Mars by way of the steadiness of the in a single day hours of January 30-31. Desk 2 offers the precise particulars for 15 chosen cities within the US and Canada.
The desk beneath provides civil instances (all a.m.) of Mars’s closest strategy to the sting of the moon’s decrease limb. Separation between Mars and the moon’s decrease edge is given by way of minutes of arc (the obvious width of the Moon on January 30-31 is 30 arc minutes).
For instances listed with an asterisk (*) the calendar date is Jan. 31.
Location | Time zone | Closest strategy | Separation |
---|---|---|---|
Seattle | PST | 8:55 p.m. | 10 arc min |
San Francisco | PST | 8:55 p.m. | 2 arc min |
Helena | MST | 10:10 p.m. | 9 arc min |
Salt Lake Metropolis | MST | 10:13 p.m. | 3 arc min |
Denver | MST | 10:25 p.m. | 3 arc min |
Huntsville | CST | 10:50 p.m. | 1 arc min |
Winnipeg | CST | 11:25 p.m. | 13 arc min |
Kansas Metropolis | CST | 11:38 p.m. | 3 arc min |
Tulsa | CST | 11:38 p.m. | 1 arc min |
Chicago | CST | 11:43 p.m. | 7 arc min |
Montreal | EST | 12:45 a.m.* | 13 arc min |
Boston | EST | 12:50 a.m.* | 12 arc min |
New York | EST | 12:50 a.m.* | 10 arc min |
Wash. D.C. | EST | 12:50 a.m.* | 7 arc min |
Atlanta | EST | 12:50 a.m.* | 1 arc min |
Instance: From Kansas Metropolis, closest strategy is 11:38 p.m. Central Customary Time, the separation is listed at 3 arc minutes or fractionally roughly 1/10 of the moon’s width will separate Mars from the moon’s higher edge.
Calculated solely for SPACE.com by Joe Rao.
If you wish to get a front-row have a look at the lunar occultation of Mars, our guides for the best telescopes and best binoculars are a fantastic place to search out the gear you want. If you happen to’re seeking to take some images of the occasion, see our best cameras for astrophotography and best lenses for astrophotography.
Editor’s Word: If you happen to get a fantastic picture of the lunar occultation of Mars and wish to share it with Area.com’s readers, ship your picture(s), feedback, and your title and site to spacephotos@space.com.
Joe Rao serves as an teacher and visitor lecturer at New York’s Hayden Planetarium (opens in new tab). He writes about astronomy for Natural History magazine (opens in new tab), the Farmers’ Almanac (opens in new tab) and different publications. Comply with us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) and on Facebook (opens in new tab).