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Occultation of Mars by the Moon

-- Dan Shipley | February 19, 2020

Question:

Moon passing between us on earth and Mars.
Sunlight on part (about half) of moon
How come we can see Mars till it goes behind the lighted part of the moon????
Wouldn’t the dark part of the moon block us from seeing Mars????
Watch film clip down in the story.

https://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-blogs/watch-the-moon-occult-mars-before-sunrise-on-february-18th/

or
https://www.sciencealert.com/tomorrow-morning-the-moon-will-occult-mars

-- Dan Shipley

Answer:

The occultation video you point to looks completely normal, showing only a zoomed-in portion of the disk of the moon where the occultation of Mars is occurring. In fact, the moon’s phase was full on the date that the occultation video was made, December 24, 2007.

-- Jeff Mangum

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