Yes, the lunar occultation of Mars occurs during the morning, with the catch (there\u2019s always one!) that the Sun will be up.<\/p>
Get more info with our guide on how to observe Mars<\/a> and how to calculate and observe lunar occultations<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p> Mars will be at mag. \u20130.9 at the time of the 18 December lunar occultation.<\/p> The Moon will be at a large and bright phase, appearing as an 89%-lit waning gibbous, so it should be pretty easy to locate in a clear sky.<\/p> Look for it in plenty of time before the start of the event, above the west-northwest horizon.<\/p> Once you\u2019ve located the Moon, you\u2019ll need a bit of help, as at mag. \u20130.9 Mars will be too dim to be seen with just your eyes.<\/p> Binoculars should work fine for the lunar occultation of Mars, although a small telescope on a driven mount will make life a lot easier.<\/p> Needless to say, a large telescope will fare best of all, but we\u2019d recommend keeping the magnification low to medium.<\/p> Go too high and the already low contrast of the daytime sky will result in a poor image, with Mars hard to see well.<\/p> As the Moon is fairly close to Earth, your position on Earth\u2019s surface, even to a few tens of kilometres, will affect the apparent position of the Moon relative to Mars in the sky.<\/p> As a consequence, it\u2019s not possible to give one universal start time for the occultation; rather, we\u2019ve provided a guide time as seen from the centre of the UK.<\/p> To make sure you don\u2019t miss the event, we\u2019d recommend starting to observe at least 15\u201320 minutes before the stated times.<\/p> As it\u2019s the waning gibbous Moon that will be doing the occulting, it\u2019ll be the bright leading edge of the Moon that first covers Mars.<\/p> The planet will have an apparent diameter of 13 arcseconds on 18 December and as a result its disappearance will take 22 seconds.<\/p> It will take a similar time to reappear from behind the Moon\u2019s dark limb.<\/p> The daylight nature of the sky will mean the dark, night portion of the Moon\u2019s surface will not be visible at all, making spotting the re-emerging planet that bit harder.<\/p> We\u2019d recommend a lower power which covers a reasonable size of the Moon\u2019s edge if you\u2019re uncertain where to look.<\/p> This should give you the best chance of seeing the planet\u2019s reappearance.<\/p> Mars occultation observing tips and times<\/strong><\/h2>
![\"lunar](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2023\/01\/how-observe-lunar-occultation-be86d5b.jpg\")
![\"The](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2020\/10\/01.RicardoTolentino_MarsMoon-156891b-e1611581734696.jpg\")
What you’ll see<\/strong><\/h2>