While Jupiter and Saturn have been front and center hogging all the attention lately, Mars has been patiently lurking over in the East. But tonight Mars gets top billing! A nearly full Moon glides right underneath it. This should be a cool display because it changes over the course of the night.
We have pretty clear skies across much of the U.S. tonight (and once it’s dark, the West Coast people will be happy that the heat has died down.)
The Moon, as it orbits Earth, is always drifting to the East relative to farther-away objects like Mars, so it rises a little later (from the East) each night:
It’s a continuous motion, and over the course of tonight the Moon actually makes its way from one side of Mars to the other, passing just beneath it. The above snapshot is more of a West-Coast view, because that’s about what the scene should be around 10:00 P.M. Pacific, not long after Moonrise (9:21 P.M. in Los Angeles). On the East Coast, the pass won’t happen until more like 1:00 A.M., and the Moon will be a lot higher in the sky when it does. (Boston moonrise is 9:03 P.M.)
I’m really eager to see exactly what happens because every projection I’ve seen differs slightly. Here’s one that even shows the Moon above Mars after it makes the pass. I don’t think it’s going to look like this!
So let’s get out there and see what actually happens! Share your observations and photos tonight in the comments. Let us know what you see from where you’re at.
If you happen to be in South America, by the way, the Moon will actually pass right in front of Mars in many places. Maybe someone down there is reading and will share that with us. In Brasília, for example, Mars will disappear behind the Moon at 11:49 P.M. local time and reappear at 1:04 A.M. Below is shown the region in which this occultation will happen:
Mars is still a bit dimmer than Jupiter right now, but that’s going to change by the end of this month. Mars will surpass Jupiter in brightness for all of October. That’s because we’re getting closer and closer to it, catching up to it in orbit:
And we will do so on October 13 at 7:20 P.M. Eastern, when Mars will be at opposition, or directly in line with Earth and the Sun.
If you do watch this event tonight, when you look up at the little red dot, keep in mind that’s a whole ‘nother world up there, one we’re becoming more and more intimately familiar with every day.
The very latest example of that: NASA just released footage of a dust devil that was caught on film by Curiosity a couple weeks ago:
Soon we might even hear what this sounds like. Mars 2020, which you may have spotted in the inner Solar System diagram making its way from Earth’s orbit to Mars’ (arriving February 18), is carrying, among many other things, microphones, to give us our first sounds from Mars. The thin atmosphere will make sounds quieter and lower-pitched than they would be on Earth. Click the links below to hear Bill Nye The Science Guy as he sounds on Earth and about how he’d sound on Mars:
EARTH MARS
And now…. maybe it’s not dark enough yet, maybe you’re still waiting for Moonrise, but that’s OK! In the meantime we have some great high-resolution panoramic images from the NASA rovers on Mars! This is spectacular footage you should see in full screen. It was just put out in July and August.
For each video, hit play, then click the “YouTube” logo at lower right.
Then click the “full screen” icon at the very lower-right corner.
This puts you on the surface and makes you feel like you’re there! It’s worth it.
See you in a little while…...
UPDATE: Here is my series of photos, crude as they may be, showing the pass from here on the East Coast:
There is the true orbital motion of the Moon, folks. Usually the Moon appears to be moving toward the West because of the rotation of the Earth, but here we see it moving toward the East due to its actual orbital motion around the Earth.