An occultation of a star or planet by the Moon happens when the Moon's apparent eastward motion in the sky causes the Moon to pass between an observer on Earth and the object. This is essentially the same Earth / Moon / object geometry that happens during a solar eclipse, except that the angular size of the object is much less than that of the Sun.  Such an event was recently widely observable over the United States and western Africa.

These are the times for the  occultation disappearance and reappearance of Mars by the moon as seen at Washington, DC (near our house), around 2117 and 2231 EST (0217 and 0331 UT) respectively.

Still photography was made with a Canon EOS 90D camera + 300mm lens on a fixed tripod.  A Canon EOS M6-mkII camera + 400mm lens on a tracking mount was used for still and video (60 fps) photography.  Both of these cameras have the same focal plane. Observation conditions were very clear.

Here are the disappearance and reappearance videos, or click on the still images below. Disappearance begins at about 2m 45s into the first video, where the Moon was over-exposed to better show Mars.  Reappearance begins at about 2m 50s into the second video, and emerges at about 2 o'clock on the Moon's disk.

Created January 19, 2025