The Clouded Out Lunar Occultation of Mars: January 31, 2023
March 2023 :
The Northern part of the United States experienced an occultation of Mars with the Moon on December 8, 2022 when Mars was at opposition. The Southern states experienced merely a conjunction. The reverse happened on January 30-31, 2023 when the Southern part of the United States experienced an occultation and the Northern states a conjunction.
Skyscraper member Gregory T. Shanos was documenting the event. Greg had a SONY FDR-AX100 4K camcorder that took 15 second videos every 15 minutes of the event. A Meade 60mm refractor with a ZWO 178MM 6MP monochrome camera took 60 second videos every 15 minutes. A close-up of the event would have taken place with a Meade LX200GPS 10 inch GO-TO SCT and a ZWO ASI 290MM monochrome camera.
The skies were perfectly clear at sunset and remained that way until 12:30pm. Two friends of mine were photographing the event from Tampa, Florida and texted me that they were completely overcast at approximately 10:30 pm local time. The clouds took two hours to reach Sarasota. I saw a thick cloud band developing in the northeast region of the sky. The cloud bank quickly spread overhead and soon a quarter, then a half then three-quarters then the entire sky was completely overcast. Below is the last image I was able to obtain. Unfortunately the Moon was unable to be seen through the thick cloud cover. I only needed another 15 minutes for Mars to go behind the Moon. So close and yet so far.
Overall, I witnessed a conjunction not an occultation of Mars with the Moon. The next conjunction of Mars will occur on January 13, 2025 and will be visible throughout the entire United States. Let’s hope we see this one.
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