Mars Meets The Moon
Tonight was a relatively rare chance to see the moon pass in front of a planet, and, because this was a full moon, it means that Mars was at opposition so just about as close to Earth as it gets. I took these pictures using a Nikon P1000, taking video with normal exposure and focus settings, then stepping through the sequence to see where the planet wasn't being heavily distorted by the atmospheric turbulence.
It's fantastic to see that the colour of Mars is so obviously red compared to the moon, it can be hard to be sure of the colour of the planet when it's only visible in isolation, but placing it next to the moon added a reference in a more neutral colour. It's not exactly white balance because the moon is actually dark grey like most volcanic basalt, but when illuminated by the sun it looks white.
Comments (5)
I saw this with my mark 1 eyeball as I took the car out of the garage last Thursday morning, as you say the color of Mars is so easy to pick out, but even more so when you have the moon as a reference! (I had noticed Mars a couple mornings before but had no idea it would actually go behind the moon, so that was kinda cool) :)
Nice! I wasn't able to see it at all... it was very foggy. https://meow.social/@Crissa/109481030340856547
Amazing how large Mars appears in an earth-based photo - this is unreal!
Zowie! I never would have thought to look for this. Kudos!
Incredible!