Sky note:
After sunset on Sunday, Dec. 23rd, the full Moon and Mars will rise in the east less than 2 degrees apart. They’ll be two brightest objects in the evening sky, as Mars is very near it’s closest approach (opposition) to Earth, which happened just a couple of days ago.
It will look something like this:
Note the image is not to scale. Mars is bigger than it will actually appear.
The Centaurs warned us about this.
P.S., Rev, a–very–merry Christmas to you and yours.
You have had one hell of a year, if I may say so. Talk about “making a difference”!
Anthony, elsewhere it was pointed out WRT the close meeting between the Moon and Mars that while the winter solstice was around now, the sunrise will continue to be later until around the 14th Jan, while the sunset is already getting later. I have never managed to come up with the reason for the sunrise and sunset earliest and latest events to come at different times. I suspect that it might be something to do with the Earth’s axis not being aligned with the orbital path, but I don’t know. Any answers for the New Year?
Anyway, great work with the surface stations and I hope you had a great Christmas
Tony Edwards