Occultation

[puddleshark]

I took a walk out into the forest at 4am, into the frost and moonlight with the tawny owls calling, hoping to see the lunar occultation of Mars...




Moonlight and pines. A fox barking. Somewhere in the far distance, at the edge of the forest, a very misguided cockerel.

On the open heath, I set up my tripod, and pointed the camera at the moon. I couldn't see Mars at all in the moon glare, but luckily my camera could.




Mars and the Moon pass each other in the dance.


And Mars moves on.

Comments

[larryhammer]

Woah. Sweet.

[puddleshark]

Isn't it amazing! And for once the photos actually came out!

[heleninwales]

That's amazing to have captured that. I'm surprised you didn't freeze to death. It's been very cold at night.

[puddleshark]

I couldn't see Mars at all while I was shooting. I was amazed when I got back and looked at the images in the computer, and saw how well the camera had managed to capture Mars.

It took me an hour to thaw out when I got back. But still, I'm not complaining - usually when there's any sort of astronomical event, it's a guarantee of complete cloud cover!