The planet Mars will be at the maximum possible distance from the Earth in the night between Wednesday and Thursday. The red planet is then clearly visible. Extra special is that it is also a full moon. From Earth you can see that Mars briefly disappears behind the moon. To observe it from the Netherlands you need a little luck and binoculars or a telescope.
Mars takes about 687 days to orbit the sun. Earth does this in the known 365 days. Once every one and a half to two years, Mars can be seen very well from Earth. At around 0:30 on Thursday, Mars will be directly opposite the sun as seen from Earth and the planet will be at its brightest.
The red planet and the moon will be in the same direction as seen from Earth on Thursday morning. As a result, they seem to converge in the sky. Astronomers call this phenomenon a conjunction.
Also, Thursday morning is a full moon. Since the earth is not between the moon and the sun, it does not cast a shadow on the moon. Since Mars is further away, the red planet appears to pass behind the full moon around 6am. About an hour later, the planet will again be visible from Earth.
Only in the northwest of the Netherlands are the weather conditions so favorable that you can see the sky well, says Johnny Willemsen from Weerplaza. “Thursday morning there are a lot of clouds and showers, especially inland. The best chance of clearing is in the northwest.”
So whether you can see Mars and the full moon depends on where you are on Thursday morning. “In North Holland you have a good chance of seeing it. But in the south you can forget it, there it is completely covered in clouds.”
Clearly visible with binoculars or a telescope
According to astronomer Rens Waters, those who have a good view of the starry sky should use binoculars or a telescope.
“The moon and Mars are both bright enough to be seen with the naked eye. But the moon is much closer and is therefore bigger and brighter for us,” explains the Radboud University astronomer. “As Mars approaches the moon, the human eye soon fails to distinguish them.”
With an instrument it is easy to see how Mars passes behind the moon. “The moon has no atmosphere. As a result, you can see very clearly and sharply where and how Mars slips behind the edge of the moon.”
According to Waters, the phenomenon has no consequences for us on earth. “It’s purely coincidental, Mars and the moon follow their orbits neatly and don’t ‘collide’. It has no consequences for Earth, except that it looks spectacular from here.”
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