Planet Mars Plays "Peekaboo" with The Moon

Planet Mars Plays "Peekaboo" with The Moon

The Lunar Occultation of Mars: An occultation is an event that occurs when one object is hidden from the observer by another object that passes between them.

During the early hours of December 8, 2022, the almost Full Moon occulted the planet Mars from the viewpoint of Earth.

Mary: "I imaged it with a William Optics 70mm refractor, Celestron 3x Barlow, ZWO ASI120MC camera. I used my portable Skywatcher AZGTi mount because I wasn't sure if I'd get the egress from my permanent pier as there are trees in that direction. Additionally I took some widefield photos with a Canon 1100D with 30mm zoom lens."

"I shot 2 or 3 thousand frame videos and had to two separate stacking processes on them, one for the Moon and one for Mars because they were moving so quickly relative to each other. I then processed the images in Lightroom and Fast Stone Image Viewer. I'm slightly astounded to have captured surface features on Mars with such a small refractor, but this amazing telescope often surprises me with how versatile it is! The Celestron 3x Barlow is excellent quality too, which really helped with this."

Credit: Mary McIntyre, Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society (FRAS)

Mary's Flickr Page: https://www.flickr.com/photos/spicey_spiney/ 

Image Capture Date: December 8, 2022

Location: Oxfordshire, United Kingdom (UK)

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