Mars Rises above the Lunar Limb
On the night of December 7
Mars wandered near the Full Moon.
In fact
the Red Planet was occulted, passing
behind the Moon, when viewed from locations across
Europe and North America.
About an hour after disappearing behind the lunar disk
Mars reappears in this stack of
sharp video frames captured
from San Diego,
planet Earth.
With the Moon in the foreground Mars was a mere 82 million kilometers
distant, near
its own opposition.
Full Moon and full Mars were bright enough provide the
spectacular image with no exposure adjustments necessary.
In the image Mars appears
to rise just over ancient, dark-floored,
lunar crater Abel
very close to the southeastern edge of the Moon's
near side.
Humboldt is the large impact crater to its north (left).