Occultation of Mars 2022-12-08 by P.Abel & C.Nuttall


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Occultation of Mars 2022-12-08 by P.Abel & C.Nuttall


Occultation of Mars 2022-12-08 by P.Abel
Please find attached my observation of the occultation of Mars on 2022 December 08. Please note that I have not drawn the lunar surface in these observations- they are a simulation from NASA's dial-a-moon, there wasn't time to draw the lunar surface and make accurate timings. What I have attempted to do is depict what the occultation looked like through the telescope. The Mars drawing included here is mine, and I have attempted to recreate the glare from the moon which was considerable as the sky had become rather hazy at this point. Also given in the observation are details of the start and end times of Mars disappearance behind the western limb of the moon- the approximate length from these timings was around 33s from Mars sitting on the western limb of the moon to being totally obscured. 
I was unable to see the re-appearance as the moon was to far in the west from the site of my 12h Newtonian. I did note that by 0614UT, I was still unable to see Mars with the unaided eye- this is probably due to the glare from the moon making it very difficult to see Mars.

[Paul G. Abel:Leicester:United Kingdom]

Occultation of Mars 2022-12-08 by C.Nuttall
My intention was to produce a detailed high-magnification study of the occultation, however the weather did not cooperate!
I drew Mars from 04:15 to 04:50, there was intermittent cloud drifting across the sky from the east and the seeing was poor, making drawing the planet difficult. I observed with and without an apodizer and a W21 filter.
I then roughly sketched a small portion of the moon and the main albedo features on a separate piece of paper and marked the position and relative scale of Mars adjacent to the limb.
By this time the clouds had gone, and I stopped drawing a couple of minutes before first contact and simply observed the occultation in a clear sky, albeit with poor seeing.
I then drew the Moon with black and white pastels on grey paper from 05:10 to 05:40, before preparing to spot Mars reemerge fifteen minutes later. 
The seeing was so poor by this time that I reduced the magnification to 300x and decided to set the paper and pencils aside and simply enjoy the reappearance, and I'm glad I did. As Mars pulled clear of the lunar limb I was struck by the similarity of the scene to the famous Earthrise photo taken by Bill Anders onboard Apollo 8, something I will remember for a long time!

[Chris Nuttall : York,UK]

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