Every day, something will appear in the sky that will attract the attention of even those who usually don’t bother looking.
This will most likely happen in the evening hours of Wednesday (Dec. 7) when the full moon will appear in closest proximity to the now bright one. planet mars. In fact, the moon will be full at 11:08 pm EST (0408 GMT on December 8) followed by Mars reaching opposition to the sun approximately 87 minutes later. This will be a near perfect night in the space between the sun, the earth, the moon and Mars.
People who don’t know or can’t be forewarned will probably wonder, when they take a casual look at the nearest neighbor in space on this Wednesday, December 1st, what is that “orange-yellow light”? Sometimes, such opportunities bring with them sudden and reckless phone calls to radio and television stations, local planets, weather services and police stations. Not a few of these calls are frantically inquiring about a “mysterious UFO” that is flying in the vicinity of our natural satellite!
If you don’t live in one of the areas listed below that will provide a good opportunity to see the event in person, you’re in luck: The Virtual Telescope Project will be livestreaming Tuesday’s opposition. (Opens in a new tab) beginning at 11:00 pm EST on December 7 (0400 GMT on December 8).
Related: December full moon 2012: Mars’ cold moon hides
Joe Rao is a veteran meteorologist and eclipse watcher who also serves as a teacher and guest lecturer at New York’s Hayden Planetarium.
Where to see the lunar eclipse on Tuesday
For good measure, those located to the northwest from Piedras Negras, Mexico to Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky to Seabrook, New Hampshire will see the hidden moon of Mars. Refer to the US map. But those who will see it from the south and the east will clearly miss the planet, the moon, barely passing over it (it is called landing).
But to a casual observer positioned exactly at or very close to it – it’s actually a narrow path about 21 miles (34 km) wide – the lower limb of the moon will appear to be literally passing through to feed Mars.
For those placed by chance at the northern limit of the path, the planets may disappear completely from the shining topaz orbs, and then return intermittently in the lunar valleys. On the other hand, on the southern edge of the path, Mars will briefly touch the northern edge of the moon’s only member.
Among the towns and cities located within the route are Morgantown, WV; Scranton, PA; Hudson, NY; Northampton, MA; Lowell, MA and Seabrook, NH. Refer to the hidden Mars road map feed.
Unlike a star, which is a point of light and disappears and reappears in a moment, Mars appears as a small orb in telescopes; due to its relatively large angular size (17.2 arcseconds in diameter), the occultation will occur rather quickly. Thus, the removal of Mars after the bright memhra of the moon in most places, will take anywhere from about 40 seconds to about a minute (or even longer where it approaches the oblique limb of the moon).
From Austin, for example, the slow motion of the eastern moon will take more than two minutes to cover the whole, and then it will cover the planet’s orbit – and even longer to travel to the south and closer to the northern border of the pasture, where. the more oblique the member of the moon will approach.
The planetary reflection will also be gradual. The actual term is called an concealment (Latin for “to go away”). It can also refer to this event as an eclipse of the planet Mars. Moving towards the east against the stars in its apparent diameter every hour, the moon will appear to approach Mars from the west, and finally pass before it, and then a little later, reveal it, leaving it behind. The moon continues to move towards the east.
They are as clearly visible as your eyes
The opportunity to see the moon hidden by the planet on a clear night is not too often; for Mars, for a certain position on the Earth, occurs once out of every 14 years. So, if you’re lucky enough to live in the zone of concealment and heaven cooperates, this event is an event that really shouldn’t be missed.
When Mars will be in opposition, when it has its own lunar announcements, it will shine brightly in this apparition. Normally even a bright star is very difficult to see when it is shining so close to the brightness of the full moon. However, because Mars is as bright as it is (magnitude -1.9, almost twice as bright as Sirius, the brightest star), this spectacular disappearing act can only be seen with your own eye or binoculars, although the best views will certainly be there. provided with a telescope.
Table 1 provides detailed information for 27 selected cities in the United States and Canada. The times are asterisked
| Table 1: Local circumstances for the occultation on Tuesday, 7-8, 2022. | Place | Time zone | Mars disappears |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mars returns | June | AKST | 6:19 pm |
| 6:55 pm | the city of angels | pst | 6:30 in the afternoon |
| 7:30 p.m | San Francisco | pst | 6:34 pm |
| 7:35 in the afternoon | Seattle | pst | 6:51 pm |
| 7:50 in the afternoon | Vancouver | pst | 6:55 pm |
| 7:52 pm | Tucson | MST | 7:32 pm |
| 8:27 p.m | Las Vegas | MST | 7:34 pm |
| 8:35 in the afternoon | Lake | MST | 7:41 pm |
| 8:46 p.m | Denver | MST | 7:44 p.m |
| 8:48 p.m | Helena | MST | 7:51 p.m |
| 8:56 p.m | Edmonton | MST | 8:04 p.m |
| 9:06 p.m | Yellow | MST | 8:23 pm |
| 9:16 pm | White horse | MST | 8:25 p.m |
| 8:57 p.m | Tulsa | CST | 8:54 pm |
| 9:41 pm | Kansas City | CST | 8:56 p.m |
| 9:52 pm | Austin | CST | 8:57 p.m |
| 9:12 pm | Saskatoon | CST | 9:03 p.m |
| 10:10 in the afternoon | Winnipeg | CST | 9:05 p.m |
| 10:16 pm | Chicago | CST | 9:10 in the afternoon |
| 10:04 am | Memphis | CST | 9:14 pm |
| 9:29 p.m | Churchill | CST | 9:22 p.m |
| 10:31 p.m | Louisville | it is | 10:21 pm |
| 10:47 p.m | Toronto | it is | 10:29 p.m |
| 11:17 pm | Montreal | it is | 10:40 p.m |
| 11:29 p.m | Quebec City | it is | 10:45 p.m |
| 11:36 pm | Halifax | AST | 12:15 am* |
| 12:33 am* | Gander | NST | 12:47 am* |
1:37 am*
The upper table gives the civil times with the ablation of Mars and the retrograde of the moon. Both the removal and the appearance of the planet can last anywhere from 40 seconds to two minutes, depending on whether Mars passes centrally behind the moon (and is covered for an hour or more) or near its lower edge obliquely (it is covered for less than half an hour). Departure and repulsion are the periods of the center of Mars. The table has been adapted from data International Occult Association Timing (IOTA)(Opens in a new tab)
(Image credit: Starry Night Software)
Don’t miss this close! For the rest of North America, this will be the moon’s closest approach to Mars (called an .)impact
). The moon, running round the earth towards the east, will be seen to crawl slowly in its diameter roughly every hour towards, and finally pass just over the ocher planet. Although the Mertian and Eastern United States will be heavily populated in concealment, Mars will almost certainly command the people to look at it, as it seems to slowly slide under the moon.
For places like Huntsville, Knoxville, Philadelphia and New York, Mars will come within just 1 arc minute of the moon’s limb; They will almost seem to have touched. With the naked eye, Mars will look like an amber gem on the lower edge of the moon. From Boston, the distance between Mars and the member of the moon is even smaller: only 0.6 arc minutes, almost equal to the apparent width of two diameters of Mars!
After closest approach, the moon will slowly move away from Mars during the night hours of December 7th and December 8th.
| Tollenone to the book across | Table 2: Local circumstances for the landing of the moon and Mars, 7 Dec. and 8 Dec | Place | Time zone |
|---|---|---|---|
| A very close approach | Separation | New Orleans | it is |
| 9:11 pm | 3 arc min. | Huntsville | it is |
| 9:23 pm | 1 arc min. | Miami | it is |
| 10:16 pm | 11 arc min. | Jacksonville | it is |
| 10:23 pm | 7 arc min. | Atlanta | it is |
| 10:26 pm | 3 arc min. | Colombia | it is |
| 10:31 p.m | 4 arc min. | Knoxville | it is |
| 10:31 p.m | 1 arc min. | Charlotte | it is |
| 10:36 pm | 3 arc min. | Norfolk | it is |
| 10:46 p.m | 4 arc min. | Washington | it is |
| 10:46 p.m | arc 2 min. | Philadelphia | it is |
| 10:51 p.m | 1 arc min. | New York | it is |
| 10:56 pm | 1 arc min. | Boston | it is |
| 11:01 p.m | 0.6 arc min. | San Juan | AST |
| 11:51 pm | 23 arc min. | Hamilton | AST |
12:06 am*
11 arc min.
The upper table gives the civil times of Mars’ closest approach to the edge of the lower limb of the Moon. The separation between Mars and the lower part of the Moon is given in minutes of arc (the apparent latitude of the Moon on Dec. 7 is 30 minutes of arc).
Example: From Jacksonville, the closest approach is 10:23 pm EST, a separation of 7 arc minutes or roughly 1/4 of the moon’s latitude will separate Mars from the lower edge of the moon.
Europe too! And after 2012, another opportunity
Europeans will also be able to participate in this occultation, with them the event will occur here in the early hours of Thursday (Dec. 8) when the moon descends in the zephyr and west sky. For Lisbon, Mars will disappear behind the moon at 4:28 am local time and will appear again at 5:02 am for Dublin it’s 4:55 am and 5:56 am London: 5:00 am and 5:59 am Berlin: 6:01 am and 6:56 am Paris : 6:04 am and 7:02 am and Madrid 6:21 am and 7:07 am The next favorable occultation of Mars for North America will occur on January 14, 2025 at approximately 4:00 UT. The waning moon will be full for about 6 hours. Mars came to opposition after only two days. Joe Rao serves as a teacher and guest lecturer in New YorkHayden Planetarium (Opens in a new tab) . He writes about astronomyNatural History magazine (Opens in a new tab) the Agriculturist’s Almanac (Opens in a new tab) and other published books. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (Opens in a new tab) andFacebook
(Opens in a new tab).
#Mars #opposition #full #moon #week #Dec #Heres
