                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                              2022 December 15

                            Full Moon, Full Mars
                  Image Credit & Copyright: Tomas Slovinsky

   Explanation: On December 8 a full Moon and a full Mars were close, both
   bright and opposite the Sun in planet Earth's sky. In fact Mars was
   occulted, passing behind the Moon when viewed from some locations
   across Europe and North America. Seen from the city of Kosice in
   eastern Slovakia, the lunar occultation of Mars happened just before
   sunrise. The tantalizing spectacle was recorded in this telescopic
   timelapse sequence of exposures. It took about an hour for the Red
   Planet to disappear behind the lunar disk and then reappear as a
   warm-hued full Moon, the last full Moon of 2022, sank toward the
   western horizon. The next lunar occultation of bright planet Mars will
   be in the new year on January 3, when the Moon is in a waxing gibbous
   phase. Lunar occultations are only ever visible from a fraction of the
   Earth's surface, though. The January 3 occultation of Mars will be
   visible from parts of the South Atlantic, southern Africa, and the
   Indian Ocean.

                         Tomorrow's picture: Geminid
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