the Moon will begin November’s series of planetary encounters on Monday, November 2, by appearing close to Mars in the early morning and Jupiter at night. From some locations on Earth, the alignment with Jupiter will produce a lunar occultation, with the Moon temporarily covering the planet.
The meeting between the Moon and Mars will occur at 11:24 a.m. Brasília time, but it will not be observable because of daylight. The two bodies can nevertheless be seen close together before dawn, rising at 1:09 a.m. and reaching an altitude of 40 degrees above the northeastern horizon before disappearing shortly before 5 a.m.
At 8:09 p.m., the Moon will be in conjunction with Jupiter. In Brazil, both objects will be below the horizon at that time, so they will not appear to overlap. In other parts of the world, however, the Moon will pass in front of Jupiter, creating the occultation.
The event will be visible during the night in island countries and territories including the Maldives, Sri Lanka, Seychelles, Mauritius and Réunion. In parts of southern and southeastern Asia and Oceania, the occultation will take place during the day, making observation more difficult because of sunlight.
The Moon, Mars and Jupiter will be located in the constellation Leo. Their apparent magnitudes will be -11.8, 0.9 and -2.1, respectively. In this scale, lower values indicate greater brightness; the Sun, for comparison, has an apparent magnitude of -27.
The Moon’s other planetary encounters in November are expected to involve Venus on November 7, Saturn on November 20, and Mars and Jupiter again on November 30. These monthly conjunctions occur because the Moon’s orbit around Earth is approximately aligned with the plane in which the planets orbit the Sun, known as the ecliptic plane.
Mars’s reddish appearance results from the interaction between its surface composition, atmosphere and geological processes. The planet’s color has also influenced its cultural associations: in Greek mythology, the war god Ares was linked to red, while the Romans later renamed the god Mars, a name that was also given to the planet.
Sources: Olhar Digital.