Full Cold Moon blocks Mars TONIGHT! The Full Cold Moon occurs tonight, December 7th at 11:08 pm EST.

Also, the bright red planet Mars is at opposition (directly opposite the Sun) less than two hours later! That means they are BOTH at opposition at nearly the same time and Mars will be 'occulted' (i.e. behind or eclipsed) by the Full Moon for much of North America. Unfortunately, Harrisonburg, VA will NOT see the occultation (see map) but many of our friends around the world will see it. Even though Mars will not disappear in Virginia, it will be right next to the Full Moon and will be a truly awesome sight! Use your binoculars if you have some, you will be amazed at how small Mars is relative to the Moon. In reality, Mars is about twice the diameter of the Moon, but it is over 200 times farther away, if you do a little math, you can show that the Full Moon looks about 110 times the bigger of Mars! The Full Cold Moon and Mars rise tonight in Harrisonburg around 4:30 pm, let's hope for clear skies, this will be very pretty all night long.

https://www.facebook.com/jmu.planetarium

NOTHING visible here in southern MD. CLOUDY