However, this seventh planet in the solar system can only be seen through a telescope. At around eight o’clock tomorrow morning, the moon will move in front of Uranus. But only then can the moon form in the clear daytime sky. During September and December, Uranus’ occultation occurs at night.
As the Moon orbits Earth, it repeatedly passes in front of bright stars and planets. Because the Moon’s orbit changes slightly in its position in the sky every 18 years, some objects sometimes have “seasons”. This year, the moon passes in front of Uranus and Mars more often. It’s going to be awesome on the morning of December 8th.
Then the full moon moves in front of Mars, which is then at its best for two years and is very bright. This celestial coincidence is reminiscent of 2018, when Mars stood in close rendezvous with the full moon.
While the star is always just a single point in the sky and therefore suddenly disappears behind the moon, in the case of Uranus, it takes about seven seconds for the moon to completely cover the tiny planet’s disk. For Mars, which appears much larger in the sky, it takes half a minute in December before it disappears behind the moon – and with any luck, this can be seen with the naked eye.
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