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  • Mars/Moon occultation Wed Dec 7th.

    From RichA@21:1/5 to All on Tue Dec 6 19:45:15 2022
    from Sky & Tel.

    WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 7

    ■ The full Moon and full Mars shine together tonight; both are at opposition! Moreover, the Moon occults Mars for most of North America and Europe.

    The Moon is exactly full at 11:08 p.m. EST (4:08 December 8th UT). Mars is exactly at opposition less than two hours later. Mars is still a big 17.2 arcseconds wide a week after its closest approach to Earth, and brilliant at magnitude –1.8. It far
    outshines the stars of its background constellation, Taurus.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Gerald Kelleher@21:1/5 to RichA on Tue Dec 6 23:01:33 2022
    On Wednesday, December 7, 2022 at 3:45:17 AM UTC, RichA wrote:
    from Sky & Tel.

    WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 7

    ■ The full Moon and full Mars shine together tonight; both are at opposition! Moreover, the Moon occults Mars for most of North America and Europe.

    The Moon is exactly full at 11:08 p.m. EST (4:08 December 8th UT). Mars is exactly at opposition less than two hours later. Mars is still a big 17.2 arcseconds wide a week after its closest approach to Earth, and brilliant at magnitude –1.8. It far
    outshines the stars of its background constellation, Taurus.


    It is quaint to describe the relationship between the Moon and Mars in old geocentric language, and nothing wrong with that; however, the more productive perspective is also to take into account the relative positions of the Moon and Mars to a moving
    Earth and the central Sun.

    https://www.theplanetstoday.com/

    Giving an observer that a sense that the Earth and the other planets are moving is fairly straightforward and nothing is lost in terms of the identification and magnification exercise on that account.

    Trying to wrap up observations in a rotating celestial sphere ( RA/Dec and Goto) is to miss out motions by ignoring the annual change in position of the stars which set the Sun up in its true position as a central and sometimes foreground reference for
    enjoyable intepretation. We are conveniently sandwiched between the slower and faster moving planets so Mars is always at its brightest when closest to the Earth-

    https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap181108.html

    Venus is at its darkest when closest to the Earth in our mutual orbits of our parent star-

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7U5VbasKr4&t=21s

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From StarDust@21:1/5 to RichA on Wed Dec 7 10:47:36 2022
    On Tuesday, December 6, 2022 at 7:45:17 PM UTC-8, RichA wrote:
    from Sky & Tel.

    WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 7

    ■ The full Moon and full Mars shine together tonight; both are at opposition! Moreover, the Moon occults Mars for most of North America and Europe.

    The Moon is exactly full at 11:08 p.m. EST (4:08 December 8th UT). Mars is exactly at opposition less than two hours later. Mars is still a big 17.2 arcseconds wide a week after its closest approach to Earth, and brilliant at magnitude –1.8. It far
    outshines the stars of its background constellation, Taurus.

    But it's cold outside!
    What to do?
    🤔😰

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From palsing@21:1/5 to StarDust on Wed Dec 7 11:26:29 2022
    On Wednesday, December 7, 2022 at 10:47:38 AM UTC-8, StarDust wrote:
    On Tuesday, December 6, 2022 at 7:45:17 PM UTC-8, RichA wrote:
    from Sky & Tel.

    WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 7

    ■ The full Moon and full Mars shine together tonight; both are at opposition! Moreover, the Moon occults Mars for most of North America and Europe.

    The Moon is exactly full at 11:08 p.m. EST (4:08 December 8th UT). Mars is exactly at opposition less than two hours later. Mars is still a big 17.2 arcseconds wide a week after its closest approach to Earth, and brilliant at magnitude –1.8. It far
    outshines the stars of its background constellation, Taurus.

    But it's cold outside!
    What to do?
    🤔😰

    Every amateur astronomer should have proper clothing for observing when it is cold outside. My own stuff keeps me cozy in temperatures down into the teens, unless there is wind, and then it is over in a hurry...

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From StarDust@21:1/5 to palsing on Wed Dec 7 16:44:34 2022
    On Wednesday, December 7, 2022 at 11:26:31 AM UTC-8, palsing wrote:
    On Wednesday, December 7, 2022 at 10:47:38 AM UTC-8, StarDust wrote:
    On Tuesday, December 6, 2022 at 7:45:17 PM UTC-8, RichA wrote:
    from Sky & Tel.

    WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 7

    ■ The full Moon and full Mars shine together tonight; both are at opposition! Moreover, the Moon occults Mars for most of North America and Europe.

    The Moon is exactly full at 11:08 p.m. EST (4:08 December 8th UT). Mars is exactly at opposition less than two hours later. Mars is still a big 17.2 arcseconds wide a week after its closest approach to Earth, and brilliant at magnitude –1.8. It
    far outshines the stars of its background constellation, Taurus.

    But it's cold outside!
    What to do?
    🤔😰
    Every amateur astronomer should have proper clothing for observing when it is cold outside. My own stuff keeps me cozy in temperatures down into the teens, unless there is wind, and then it is over in a hurry...

    I take my girlfriend, keeps me warm!
    😍😍😍

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From palsing@21:1/5 to palsing on Wed Dec 7 18:34:08 2022
    On Wednesday, December 7, 2022 at 11:26:31 AM UTC-8, palsing wrote:
    On Wednesday, December 7, 2022 at 10:47:38 AM UTC-8, StarDust wrote:
    On Tuesday, December 6, 2022 at 7:45:17 PM UTC-8, RichA wrote:
    from Sky & Tel.

    WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 7

    ■ The full Moon and full Mars shine together tonight; both are at opposition! Moreover, the Moon occults Mars for most of North America and Europe.

    The Moon is exactly full at 11:08 p.m. EST (4:08 December 8th UT). Mars is exactly at opposition less than two hours later. Mars is still a big 17.2 arcseconds wide a week after its closest approach to Earth, and brilliant at magnitude –1.8. It
    far outshines the stars of its background constellation, Taurus.

    But it's cold outside!
    What to do?
    🤔😰
    Every amateur astronomer should have proper clothing for observing when it is cold outside. My own stuff keeps me cozy in temperatures down into the teens, unless there is wind, and then it is over in a hurry...

    I just watched Mars disappear behind the moon at about 6:30 PM local time... San Diego, CA. area... the trick, of course, is watching the emergence of Mars later on this evening!

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From RichA@21:1/5 to palsing on Wed Dec 7 20:03:33 2022
    On Wednesday, 7 December 2022 at 21:34:10 UTC-5, palsing wrote:
    On Wednesday, December 7, 2022 at 11:26:31 AM UTC-8, palsing wrote:
    On Wednesday, December 7, 2022 at 10:47:38 AM UTC-8, StarDust wrote:
    On Tuesday, December 6, 2022 at 7:45:17 PM UTC-8, RichA wrote:
    from Sky & Tel.

    WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 7

    ■ The full Moon and full Mars shine together tonight; both are at opposition! Moreover, the Moon occults Mars for most of North America and Europe.

    The Moon is exactly full at 11:08 p.m. EST (4:08 December 8th UT). Mars is exactly at opposition less than two hours later. Mars is still a big 17.2 arcseconds wide a week after its closest approach to Earth, and brilliant at magnitude –1.8. It
    far outshines the stars of its background constellation, Taurus.

    But it's cold outside!
    What to do?
    🤔😰
    Every amateur astronomer should have proper clothing for observing when it is cold outside. My own stuff keeps me cozy in temperatures down into the teens, unless there is wind, and then it is over in a hurry...
    I just watched Mars disappear behind the moon at about 6:30 PM local time... San Diego, CA. area... the trick, of course, is watching the emergence of Mars later on this evening!

    Lucky. It's socked-in in the N.E.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Chris L Peterson@21:1/5 to All on Fri Dec 9 15:45:18 2022
    On Tue, 6 Dec 2022 19:45:15 -0800 (PST), RichA <rander3128@gmail.com>
    wrote:

    from Sky & Tel.

    WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 7

    ? The full Moon and full Mars shine together tonight; both are at opposition! Moreover, the Moon occults Mars for most of North America and Europe.

    The Moon is exactly full at 11:08 p.m. EST (4:08 December 8th UT). Mars is exactly at opposition less than two hours later. Mars is still a big 17.2 arcseconds wide a week after its closest approach to Earth, and brilliant at magnitude 1.8. It far
    outshines the stars of its background constellation, Taurus.

    Had thin clouds here, and occasional thicker ones passing through, but
    was able to image Mars going behind and coming out. The thin clouds
    made it very difficult to see visually, but they hardly interfered
    with the imaging at all.

    http://www.cloudbait.com/20221207_mars-moon.php

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Quadibloc@21:1/5 to StarDust on Sun Dec 11 02:14:05 2022
    On Wednesday, December 7, 2022 at 5:44:35 PM UTC-7, StarDust wrote:

    I take my girlfriend, keeps me warm!

    But that works most effectively when it also involves
    a considerable distraction from observing...

    John Savard

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)