ELK GROVE, Calif. — While you were sleeping, you missed a rare astrological event.
On Tuesday, the Earth, Mars and moon aligned, forming the Occultation of Mars. This special event, when Mars disappears behind the moon, was especially visible in North America on the West Coast due to the time it took place.
Now, the moon passing in front of another planet isn't normally rare, but being able to see it from Earth is. In order for us to see this, a lot of things have to line up (pun intended). To best see the alignment, cloud coverage has to be in our favor, as well as time of day and the where you're standing on Earth in relation to the moon's position.
According to Accuweather, you didn't need a telescope, but it certainly helped one Elk Grove man. Andrew McCarthy, an Elk Grove astrophotographer, was up early capturing the rare event and talked about the difficulty of getting the perfect shot of the Occultation.
"Well it's already hard getting up at 2 a.m. to set-up a remote observatory, but it also doesn't help when the sky is completely covered in clouds," McCarthy said. "So, we actually got really lucky that clouds broke just in time to see Mars emerge from the other side of the moon."
On Wednesday, the Occultation of Jupiter will occur, however, we won't be able to see it as well as the Mars event, unless you take a trip to Antarctica.
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