Watching the moonbeams as evening drew nigh

[sovay]

I just got back inside from confirming for my father that the candle-bright object so close to the rising copper-red moon is in fact Mars; we're in the wrong hemisphere to witness tonight's occultation, but the visual near-miss should still be impressive enough from this latitude that I plan to go out at half past midnight to look for Mars standing above the moon. It was also impossible not to notice when I stepped out into the street that Jupiter was huge at the end of it and so was nearby Saturn. It turns out we are due for a great conjunction this year, on the winter solstice no less and the closest the two planets have been since 1623. I truly hope not to be in too much despair over the state of the world to enjoy the state of the solar system in December.

[edit 2020-09-06 0:46:00] The ruddy bead of Mars over the moon was distinct and visible to the naked eye, whereas the camera freaked out and gave itself a mild case of moon dogs, but fortunately I was not the camera.

Comments

[dhampyresa]

Thank you for this! Hopefully light pollution won't be too bad here when I go out in a bit to see it. (Would not have known about this without this post so thank you again!)

[sovay]

Thank you for this! Hopefully light pollution won't be too bad here when I go out in a bit to see it.

You're welcome! I wish you good weather.