95 replies to this topic

[Josephus Miller]

 

As I watched a thought of "the moon is eating Mars" ran through my mind ...

 

Mars from Gustave Holst's Planets went through my mind....

 

https://www.youtube....h?v=Jmk5frp6-3Q

[Scott Beith]

I broke out a DSLR instead of a scope but I was able to shoot all the way to the disappearance.  I will process the pics this weekend.

[grif 678]

I had my ETX set up outside, with a big zip lock bag over it. Went out about 9 pm, and when I removed the bag, my ETX dewed up like some one sprayed water on it. Did not have time to do anything about it. Had to run and get my binocs to barely see it going behind. I did not know it was so much dew outside. The rails on my porch was dripping water, it was so much water in the air.

[RMay]

Very nice images, all!

 

The first pic is a good indication of what I had to work with starting out, but I ended up with at least ‘better than nothing’ results… it’s always a treat to go on these scavenger hunts!

 

Ron

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[Maximus001]

Here it was a family experience. Quite wonderful.  Had the Tak fc 100d with a Sky rover zoom and AT 125edl with the Leica zoom set up.  We zoomed in as Mars closed the gap. 

[johnfgibson]

Saw it through a lucky break in the clouds at 50x through my AT80EDL. The seeing was terrible, the spectacle was wonderful. So cool to see the moon move relative to the small ruddy orb of Mars, the limb boiling, through streaks of clouds whizzing by. 

[ThomasWos]

In between the clouds in Bellingham. Mars just now coming away after skirting the edge of the Moon.

Good seeing for low altitude.

7 X 50 Celestron Pro binos. 

Cosmic!!!

Edited by ThomasWos, 13 January 2025 - 10:02 PM.

[DVexile]

Ugly seeing, but blessedly clear skies around Baltimore!

 

AT102EDL at 115x with a binoviewer.

 

Delightful!

[Bulldawg54]

Used a pair of 10x50, and watched Mars reemerge just a few moments ago. Have never watched an occultation before, this was really cool!
From Central Oklahoma.

Edited by Bulldawg54, 13 January 2025 - 10:05 PM.

[Josephus Miller]

There was some haze (mist? Ice?) in the air and my corrector was starting to frost up, but still amazing!


Just moments after reemergence.

Edited by Josephus Miller, 13 January 2025 - 10:24 PM.

[VanJan]

Observed the ingress with my 90mm refractor, and I observed the egress with 10 x 50 binoculars. Beautiful contrast between the rusty color of Mars and the silvery white of the Moon. The only photos I captured were pre-occultation. The first, a widefield shot of the scene - from top to bottom, Castor, Pollux, the Moon partially hidden behind a tree trunk, then Mars.

 

 

And a closeup of just the Moon and Mars.

 

[EJN]

Re-emergence. Canon G9, ISO 100, 1/160 sec, f/7.1, 210mm equiv.

 

 

 

A montage of pre and post occultation

 

Edited by EJN, 14 January 2025 - 12:28 AM.

[Napp]

North Florida experienced its usual weather for interesting astronomical events.  We were totally clouded over.  

[NinePlanets]

Was very fun watching ingress and egress with little C5 at 156X. Seeing not bad. Polar caps and green stuff on Mars made the breeze not feel as cold.

[npbarker]

Also terrible seeing in Wisconsin, and unforecasted light clouds, but it was clear enough on both ends. On a lark the other day I mounted the ST80 piggyback on the 6" Newtonian, and I'm glad I did. Switching between 17x on the ST80 and 120x through the newt's binoviewer was a lot of fun, and very pretty. So cool to see the ice cap pop out of then into view. Like eclipses, it felt like it approached slowly, and then all at once.

Edited by npbarker, 13 January 2025 - 11:22 PM.

[SNH]

Man, this was an incredible event and that much more special because I was clouded out for BOTH of the Mars/Moon occultations two winter's ago. Plus, the seeing was very good, so I got to make a sketch of surface details on Mars.

 

View of post event with my phone camera held up to my eyepiece yielding 260x in my 10-inch SCT.

 

Scott H.

Edited by SNH, 14 January 2025 - 12:01 AM.

[B 26354]

Crystal clear here, and ~45°F. Watched it through my tripod-mounted APM 20x70s, and my 80mm Stellarvue refractor, at 84X.  Ingress occured with the Moon at only 9.5° altitude, and egress at 19.5°... so in spite of the incredible transparency, the seeing was pretty awful. I've always loved watching lunar/planetary occultations though... and with Mars at opposition, this was a really fun one.

 

[BrentKnight]

North Florida experienced its usual weather for interesting astronomical events.  We were totally clouded over.  

Sorry Napp, North West Florida (and Alabama) had great weather...

 

Observation Log

[DrkNite]

Cold and clear near Chicago.  Had a perfect view, and used the Seestar S50 to view the occultation.  Two shots from my session:

 

 

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[Alan D. Whitman]

We had clear skies in the Okanagan Valley for tonight's grazing occultation of Mars as the Full Moon passed in front of the planet.

 

Most of Kelowna, British Columbia with a metropolitan population of over 200,000, was in the northern partial occultation zone. Only a small part of Mars was hidden by the Moon that far north.

 

Five members of our local astronomy club observed from Summerland, BC (between Kelowna and Penticton). In Summerland about 75 to 80 percent of Mars was occulted, but the remaining sliver of Mars always remained visible in our refractors.

 

I joined the group hosted by Dave Gamble in Summerland because Mars would have been completely covered by the Moon at my house south of Penticton. A grazing occultation is more interesting than a total occultation.

 

This was my second grazing occultation of a planet. The day before 9/11 four of us watched a grazing occultation of Saturn at dawn from Washington's impressive Dry Falls State Park.

 

Alan Whitman

[Bob W4]

Just after dark here in Iowa, I was treated to a spactular view of Jupiter through my Astro-Tech AT125EDL refractor.  However, an hour or so before the occultation, the high ice type clouds rolled in.  Using 182X I got to see Mars get eaten alive by the moon despite the cloud veil.   Went inside for a cup of hot coffee and to watch more of the Vikings implosion on Monday Night Football.  An hour later, I could barely see the moon through the much thicker clouds let alone Mars for the egress.  Way cool what I did see.

[Lentini]

I saw that the Mars occultation was happening tonight. I’ve never taken the trouble to find and watch one of these, though I’ve admired photos from others.

I had already setup my TeleVue Oracle 3 with old 7mm Nagler to peek at Venus and Jupiter.

I watched Mars approach the Moon… Got overly excited and missed it disappear while I was posting pictures.

So I left the scope out and prepared to watch Mars exit from behind the Moon. My timing this time was great. And leaving the triplet out longer gave incredible views. Mars erupted from the Moon’s limb in full glory. Polar cap shining. Dark regions really discernible.

Very moving event almost… I will seek these out in the future.

Edited by Lentini, 14 January 2025 - 12:56 AM.

[Napp]

Sorry Napp, North West Florida (and Alabama) had great weather...

 

Observation Log

Glad y’all had a great view.  Northeast Florida is still clouded over.  After all here is where weather fronts go to die.  

[ButterFly]

I got a nice clearing, very low on the horizon, for ingress.  Egress was a little higher, but with still fairly poor seeing.  Despite the seeing, I still got a fairly easy view of the ice cap, and blue albedo features.  Meridiani, and acidalia during both, and syrtis major before ingress only.  Definitely fun to watch.

[deepwoods1]

That was WICKED COOL! Skies had better seeing than I expected. Using 200x, I was able to discern Mars’ polar cap and surface albedo with ease. Beautiful ingress and egress!