Home > Astronomical Event, Ephemeris Program, Observing, Occultation > Ephemeris: 01/13/2025 – The Moon will pass in front of Mars tonight

Ephemeris: 01/13/2025 – The Moon will pass in front of Mars tonight

January 13, 2025

This is Ephemeris for Monday, January 13th. Today the Sun will be up for 9 hours and 8 minutes, setting at 5:26, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:16. The Moon, at full today, will rise at 5:00 this evening.

Tonight we will be able to witness, if it’s clear of course, an event between the Moon and the planet Mars. The Moon will pass in front of the planet Mars this evening. The event is called an occultation. If you think of tonight’s full moon as being a clock face, Mars will disappear at about the 8 o’clock position of the Moon’s edge at 9:13 PM and will reappear near the 1 o’clock position at 10:20 PM. These times should be within a minute or two depending on where you are in the listening area. However, because the full moon is so bright it will be best to view this with binoculars, starting earlier in the evening so you can find Mars against the brightness of the Moon, while it’s still far away from the Moon’s edge. Good luck, and clear skies!

The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EST, UT – 5 hours). Times will be different for other locations.

Addendum

The occultation of Mars tonight, showing Mars' ingress and egress
The occultation of Mars tonight, January 13th 2025, showing Mars’ ingress at 9:13 PM in the Grand Traverse area and the egress at 10:10 PM. Mars is shown brighter and larger than it will appear. It may be hard to detect near the Moon with binoculars, and probably impossible with a naked eye, so start searching for it early. Created using Stellarium, LibreOffice Draw, and GIMP.
A world map showing the area where the occultation will be visible
A world map showing the area where the occultation will be visible, which includes the 48 contiguous United States, a good chunk of Canada, across the Atlantic and into West Africa. Don’t be fooled by the date of January 14th. Midnight January 14th Universal Time (UT) starts at 7:00 PM Eastern Standard Time on the 13th. Created using Occult 4.

If you are not in Northern Michigan the use of a program such as Stellarium will allow you to preview the occultation to derive the times of the ingress and egress times and positions for your location.

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