If you’re looking up at the Moon tonight, 9 February 2025, you’re in for a treat, as the Red Planet Mars will be sitting just below a nearly-full Moon, making for a great naked-eye spectacle.
This is surely one of the naked-eye stargazing highlights of the month, with the Red Planet skimming just below the southern edge of the Moon.
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If you head out and look up at the Moon each night – weather permitting – you’ll notice that the Moon changes position, relative to the rest of the night sky.
Within the course of a week, the stars and planets are largely in the same place at the same time every night, but the Moon changes position quite drastically, tracking eastwards.
And so, the Moon’s monthly movement around the sky often takes it close to each planet.
On Sunday 9 February 2025, Mars and the Moon will be very close.
Of course, this is all a matter of perspective and how we see objects in the night sky from Earth.
Mars isn’t actually close to the Moon: it just appears as though it is.
In practical astronomy parlance, Mars sits 20 arcminutes south of the Moon’s centre at 18:57 UT, placing it 4.8 arcminutes from the Moon’s southern limb at this time.
This means that, if you’re capturing an image of Mars and the Moon together this evening, you’ll be able to get both lunar detail and Mars in the same frame.
Although not as dramatic as a lunar occultation of Mars – when Mars disappears behind the Moon entirely – the 9 February alignment offers an exciting opportunity to get some great shots of the Moon’s edge and the planet’s disc.
Observing the event
Mars is still fairly large, thanks to having been at opposition in January 2025. This means Mars will appear around 12 arcseconds across.
And the Moon is big and bright, too. It’s just days away from full Moon on 12 February, which this month is known as the Snow Moon.
Of course, imaging is not the only method of enjoying such a view, and a telescope with a low- to mid-power eyepiece should give you a stunning visual of the encounter.
You can get a good view of Mars and the Moon through binoculars, too.
Lunar parallax – the apparent shift of the Moon’s position depending on the location from which you’re viewing it – will have an effect.
Those further to the north of the UK will see the separation reduce, while those living in southern parts of the country will see slightly greater separation.
In fact, if you happen to be observing Mars and the Moon from parts of northern Scandinavia and Iceland on 9 February 2025, you will see a lunar occultation of Mars, where the Red Planet will actually disappear behind the Moon.
If you observe or photograph Mars near the Moon on 9 February 2025 – especially if you’re lucky enough to see the lunar occultation – get in touch and let us know by emailing contactus@skyatnightmagazine.com