UntitledPHILADELPHIA - Skywatchers across North America saw a rare nighttime encounter between the Moon and Mars during the early morning hours today.
Under clear skies here, the two objects were so close as to almost appear to touch. Mars hung just off the right shoulder of the Moon at 4:30 a.m. local time, high in the southern sky. The planet was vividly red in contrast to the powerful white face of the Moon.
Even as darkness eased into daylight, the two beacons of the night sky remained starkly apparent at 5:30 a.m.
Backyard astrophotographer Becky Ramotowski of San Antonio, Texas waited patiently through clouds and rain to capture photographs of the event. Wispy clouds grace one scene-setting image.
"We just had a close encounter with Hurricane Claudette," Ramotowski said. "Now we have a close encounter of the Moon with Mars."
The clouds cleared just in time for the best part of the show, she said, allowing a close-up of the two objects. Through a telescope, the separation appears wider than it did with the naked eye.
"I was not expecting to get this lucky since the leftover clouds of hurricane Claudette were still around," Ramotowski told SPACE.com. But lucky she was. "The polar cap of Mars was even visible!"
Becky Ramotowski set the scene with this picture of Mars and the Moon and a building in San Antonio, Texas. Remnant clouds from hurricane Claudette are visible. CLICK TO ENLARGE |
Ramotowski took this close-up of Mars later, when clouds cleared after some rain. Not apparent in the image is the white polar ice cap of Mars, which she saw through her telescope. She used a Nikon Coolpix 5000 digital camera hand-held up to a 19mm eyepiece on a Celestron Premium 80mm refractor telescope. CLICK TO ENLARGE |
David Quint of Columbia, Tennessee took this photo of the pair with a Kodak 3.1 Megapixel camera held free-hand at the 25mm eyepiece of his 20-year-old 6-inch f/8 newtonian telescope. The light-colored ice cap is visible at the bottom of Mars (inside the white box is a larger version of Mars from the same photograph). CLICK TO ENLARGE |
Mars is moving closer to Earth each morning. The two planets' orbital paths are sending them toward an historical close approach in August, in which Mars will be closer and brighter than ever in the past 60,000 years or so.
Already, amateur astronomers have been thrilled by the views in large backyard telescopes.
Though the Moon is of course much closer to us than Mars, the two objects can pair up in the sky because they travel along roughly the same plane in space. Along with Earth and its satellite, most of the planets orbit the Sun very close to this plane.
Seen from Earth, Mars and the Moon traverse the same path in the sky as the Sun, a line called the ecliptic.
From parts of Florida this morning, the Moon actually passed in front of Mars. Astronomers call that an occultation. The Moon occults Mars a couple of times each year, on average, but often it occurs during daytime and is not noticed.
From many other locations, Mars gradually slid over the top of the Moon, from left to right, as the pair glided silently toward the west. By 5:40 a.m. in the Eastern United States, Mars was off to the Moon's right and clearly moving away but still easily visible.
At precisely 6 a.m., the planet was harder to detect but remained a point of dim light as sunlight touched the tree tops.
Mars can be viewed any morning now from shortly after midnight until sunlight drowns it out.
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