At times, celestial objects move in front of other objects and actually block the view of them from earth.
This is termed an occultation and occurs when an object between the viewer and another distant object blocks the line of site of the more distant object.
A recent example of this was the moon/mars occultation that occurred in January 2023.
I was fortunate enough to time my imaging session to capture this interesting event and produce the image you see here.
Whilst it may appear as if Mars and the Moon are close together, they are in fact separated by millions of kilometres of space but their orbits coincide to create the fascinating illusion of an occultation.
This is a fairly common occurrence and also happens with moons occulting (moving in front of) other planets in the solar system.
As an example, Jupiter is regularly observed with its moons occulting the gas giant.
The cyclical nature of the orbits of planets and moons makes it easy to predict when occultations will occur.
The news provided to you in this link has been investigated and compiled by the editorial staff of the Newcastle Advertiser, a sold newspaper distributed in the Newcastle area. Please follow us on Youtube and feel free to like, comment, and subscribe. For more local news, visit our webpage, follow us on Facebook and Twitter, and request an add on our WhatsApp (082 874 5550).
