Full Moon & Mars in Conjunction
I stepped outside a while ago and saw the Moon and Mars making a pretty pairing in the sky, not too far from each other.
• CELLPHONE PHOTOGRAPH BY ME •
After sky-watching for several decades, I knew that they would be closer together in 24 hours. So, I ran the Stellarium planetarium program on my computer to see how close, and here is what it shows for Friday night:
• SCREENSHOT FROM STELLARIUM SOFTWARE •
At 20:20 UTC on Friday (4:20 pm EDT), the Moon officially reaches FULL phase, and Mars and the Moon are in "conjuction" — as is said when two heavenly bodies pass close together, from our point of view on Earth. So, consider going outside any time on Friday night and take a peek at this beautiful sight! See if you can spot Saturn while out there!
😊SOURCES
• Stellarium (open source software, free download!)
a big hug is due to @enginewitty for designing the following personal banner for me 🤗
Looking for you and @enchantedspirit to have some interesting blood moon posts😎
Hey stargazer :) conjunctions always remind me to prophecies and my fav movie the dark crystal.
I was out Friday evening and taking in the full moon, it was quite a nice evening and real relaxing.
Did you see Mars, too...?
Not that I am aware of, anything in the sky at night, other than the moon, is just a star to me. I am not an astronomer or have much interest in it, we just like to sit out in the evenings and visit, especially when there is a full moon. So if I did see it, it wouldn't have meant anything to me. The wife never mentioned it either so my guess is we were out well past that point in time.