Mars Occultations December 7-8, 2022 and January 13, 2025
Mars, like all planets, undergoes occultations. Of the outer planets, it is the one planet that will most likely to be occulted by the moon. Mars moves across the sky pretty fast (its orbit is two years in length) compared to Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Because of this, it crosses paths with moon more often. I have recorded two such occultations
December 7-8, 2022
This occultation was a grazing occultation. This is when the occulted object moves along the end of the moon and can last much longer than a standard occultation, which begins and ends instantly for stars and tens of seconds for planets (depending on the size of the planet). This mosaic shows mars skirting along the moons edge. The first part of the occultation was obscurred by clouds. This was taken with a Nikon D7200 through a Meade 10-inch SCT and a 3X barlow (F30). The second photograph was taken after the occultation was over and was just at an F10 focal length. It would have been more interesting if this did not happend during a full moon but it still was something unique
January 13, 2025
This was also during a full moon but was a standard occultation. That being that Mars just disappeared on one side and then reappeared an hour or so later. The disappearance and reappearnce still was still interesting. Clouds made the first half of the occultation difficult to see but the reappearance was easily seen. These images were taken with Nikon D3300 shooting through a Meade 10-inch SCT and a 2X barlow (F20).
