Thursday 8 December 2022

Occulted Mars

The night sky was heavily covered by clouds last night and I was unable to sight the moon. However, i was awakened this morning at about five o'clock by moonlight streaming into the bedroom. So, I went to the window and was met with a bright round moon, 99.9 percent illuminated, shining in a cloudless sky. I grabbed the camera and went outside to take a better look:

That tiny dot of light at the top of the picture is Mars, still bright enough to be noticed with our eyes in spite of the moon's brightness. According to astronomers, the sun, Earth, moon and Mars are roughly aligned today in an approximate straight line. The bonus today is the moon occulting Mars on 08 Dec 2022 but unfortunately, this can't be observed from Penang as it happens around noon here. But yah, people of the other side of the world will witness the event.

This is how the moon looked like when I underexposed the shot.


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