During the night of 2007 DEC 23/24, the Full Moon will occult Mars which will be near its opposition. The event will be visible in portions of northwestern North America and eastern Europe. The southern graze path will extend from Oregon, across Canada, through Greenland, into central Europe, before ending in Saudi Arabia. There will be no northern graze path since that would be in outer space above the North Pole.

Observers on the graze path will be able to watch hills and valleys of the Moon’s south polar region pass across the disk of Mars. Those north of the path will witness a full occultation. Since the Moon will be full, there really won’t be much of a dark limb for either the immersion or emersion.

I’ve created two graze maps, one for North America and one for Europe and the Near East. They can be seen by clicking:

http://www.curtrenz.com/astronomical.html

Also on that webpage can be found my graphics related to the opposition of Mars and my December astronomical calendar for your computer’s desktop background wallpaper.

Photos and descriptions of the occultation of Mars would be welcome additions to this thread.

__________________
Curt Renz - "Centaur"
For monthly astronomical calendar visit:
www.CurtRenz.com/astronomical.html

Thanks for that map. Even though most of the USA will not see Mars occulted, it will be very close to the Moon for an extended period of time. This will make a great photo opportunity. And the Full Moon can't wash out Mars since Mars' surface brightness will be nearly half that of the Moon's.

__________________
www.gravitysimulator.com

Many thanks. Looking good for Scotland since the graze path cuts through the Highlands.

Unfortunately I won't be here to see it as I'll be doing the beach barbie thing in New Zealand for Christmas and New Year.

__________________
By asking questions we sometimes get the wrong answers, from wrong answers we learn to ask the right questions.

You’re welcome, Tony and Frogesque.

Below are my algorithms for computing the graze path in Oregon, Washington and Scotland. Input and output are all decimal. The only input is the western longitude as a positive number. The zenith angle is the position of Mars along the lunar limb measured counterclockwise from the zenith.


This first set for Oregon and Washington is only accurate between western longitudes 118° and 125°.

W = Western Longitude (as a positive number)
M = W - 122 (M may be positive or negative, but M² is always positive)

Northern Latitude = 46.110909 - 0.561886 M - 0.001628 M²
Hour PST = 17.82509 - 0.00928 M + 0.00027 M²
Zenith Angle = 222.418 + 0.178 M - 0.005 M²
Altitude of Mars = 15.319 - 0.942 M - 0.003 M²


This second set for Scotland is only accurate between western longitudes 1° and 8°.

W = Western Longitude (as a positive number)
M = W - 4 (M may be positive or negative, but M² is always positive)

Northern Latitude = 57.138948 + 0.407761 M - 0.006249 M²
Hour UT = 3.68868 - 0.02086 M + 0.00006 M²
Zenith Angle = 154.843 + 0.721 M + 0.004 M²
Altitude of Mars = 43.393 + 0.544 M - 0.011 M²

__________________
Curt Renz - "Centaur"
For monthly astronomical calendar visit:
www.CurtRenz.com/astronomical.html

Below is my algorithm for computing the graze path across the Netherlands, Germany and Austria. It is only accurate between eastern longitudes 4.9° and 16.1°. Input and output are all decimal. The only input is the eastern longitude as a positive number. The zenith angle is the position of Mars along the lunar limb measured counterclockwise from the zenith.

E = Eastern Longitude (as a positive number)
M = 10 - E (M may be positive or negative, but M² is always positive)

Northern Latitude = 50.215533 + 0.572911 M - 0.004654 M²
Hour UT = 3.98432 - 0.02031 M - 0.00014 M²
Zenith Angle = 145.799 + 0.553 M + 0.008 M²
Altitude of Mars = 33.518 + 0.861 M - 0.010 M²

__________________
Curt Renz - "Centaur"
For monthly astronomical calendar visit:
www.CurtRenz.com/astronomical.html