The Moon Occults Mars February 18 Before Dawn

Mars emerges from behind the Moon before dawn on February 18.

Mars (red dot to upper right) emerges from behind the Moon before dawn on February 18.

I’ve been reading reports that the moon will approach and cover Mars for about an hour and a half early tomorrow morning. EarthSky quotes the occultation time as 3:38:04 am, Mars will emerge from behind the Moon around 4:29:13 am. They will be to the southeast, not far from the Milky Way galactic center, with several other planets in the sky.

Moon – Mars – Venus Conjunction Setting Over Mount Whitney from Jeff Sullivan on Vimeo.

The brightness of the sky will change a lot from 5:08 am the beginning of astronomical twilight on, and rather than expose for the exposure of the 24% crescent I’m going to go a bit brighter and see if I can get earth shine on the shaded part of the moon. My exposure for this time-lapse was 1 second at f/8, ISO 1600, but the moon crescent was 2%, so it was more of a “full earth” as seen from the moon, and the earth shine was brighter. So I’ll take a few test shots of the moon and if the earth shine is too hard to get, I’ll adjust my approach from there.

Moon Mars Occultation February 18, 2020

If I get up and shoot the event, I’ll be sure and post pictures!

Update February 29: turns out two of my three telephoto lenses need service, but I was able to capture the image at the top!

Moon, Mars and Venus Setting over Mount Whitney

Jeff Sullivan

Jeff Sullivan leads landscape photography workshops in national parks and public lands throughout California and the American West.