The last full moon of the year, December’s, is about to take place. The call ‘Cold Full Moon’ (o ‘Cold Moon’ the one of ‘the long night’) -because the nights of this month are in their longest and darkest stage and during this month the cold tends to be stronger, according to NASA- coincides with Mars in oppositionthat is to say, the moment in which the red planet will be located forming a straight line with the Sun and the Earth and it will be closer to Earth than it has been all year.
For this reason, the face of the red planet will be fully illuminated by the Sun and the intense reflection of sunlight will cause it to shine throughout the night, thus allowing unique images of Mars to be obtained.
only every two years
To see the phenomenon in Spain, you will have to get up earlyeven if it is festive: a little before 6 in the morning On December 8th, the Moon can still be seen shining and, next to it, a very bright reddish planet (Mars), which will gradually get closer to it. Around 6:15 in the morning, the Moon will hide the red planet. Some thirty minutes lateraround 7, Mars will reappear behind the moon.
In addition, Mars takes almost two years to orbit the Earth, so this phenomenon will take 687 days to repeat itself.
This full moon and occultation of Mars will be in Gemini, the third sign of the zodiac. Ruled by the planet Mercury, Gemini is astrologically related to communication and exchange.
The sky at dawn this week will have Mars as the protagonist. The red planet will be in opposition to the Sun on the 8th, and will therefore reach its annual maximum in brightness and size. That morning, moreover, the full Moon will pass in front of it and hide it for almost half an hour. pic.twitter.com/EM1PCipKLs
– Royal Observatory (@RObsMadrid) December 2, 2022
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To see it better, the ideal is to go to a place with little light pollution and, if we want to improve the experience, take a telescope or binoculars with us, although the phenomenon will be visible to the naked eye.
The The first full moon of the year 2023 will be on January 7..