Moon

Dial-a-Moon | 2026

Jim R 2 Comments

What will the Moon look like on any date in 2026? What will it look like on your birthday? Find out at NASA Dial-a-Moon. An example of what you will see is pictured below for 10 January 2026. Various 2026 dates will give a different phase of the Moon. Use the following links to set dates and see views for readers in the northern hemisphere and for the southern hemisphere. Enter any month and day to see a high definition image. You may leave the universal time (UT) hour at the default value. If you want to be more precise, your local-to-Universal time conversion can be done at this link. Or, type ‘universal time’ into Google. Go back to Dial-a-Moon to enter the UT.

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After visiting Dial-a-Moon, scan down that web page for a wealth of additional information about the Moon’s motions and appearance. The images of Dial-a-Moon are made from those of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) in low altitude orbit around the Moon since 2009.

Moon Meets Mars

Jim R 5 Comments

On the evening of 29 June 2025, Mars and the Moon showed a close alignment. Skies were cleared enough to allow this photo at 9:48 PM local CDT. They appeared close together. But, the Moon was about 392,000 km and Mars 288,000,000 km from my location on Earth. Light traveled a bit more that 1 sec from the Moon to reach my camera. Light took nearly 16 minutes to travel from Mars to my camera.

Lunar Pi-clipse | 14 Mar 2025

Jim R 11 Comments

Many people were able to see the recent lunar eclipse. I am certain many slept through it. I’ve seen many of them and decided that a view through the living room window was good enough this time. I went back to bed. Later in the day I was curious about the other more unique views that others enjoyed. I will share three of them here.

Space Weather Image Gallery

I frequently visit Spaceweather to look at user-submitted images from around the world. I found this composite of a sequence of images taken by Tom Laskowski of Indiana.

Taken by Tom Laskowski on March 14, 2025 @ South Bend, Indiana
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Mars Occultation | 13 Jan 2025

Jim R 13 Comments

The occultation was to begin just after 8 PM local time. The sky was clear but it was 15˚ F outside. The location in the sky was ideal relative to my house. I set the tripod with camera on the front porch and started recording images. The interval timer was set to trip the shutter every 2 minutes. After about 10 minutes, Mars was hidden behind the Moon. I brought the tripod and camera indoors and watched a TV program with my wife until 9 PM. Mars was to emerge from occultation at about 9:10. Just before then I set up the tripod and camera, started the interval timer, and went back inside. Every 3 or 4 minutes I went back outside briefly to re-point the camera since it wasn’t tracking the Moon.

The images turned out well. I used Pixelmator Pro to layer the images into this one composite. This image shows two locations of Mars at 8:01 and 8:03 prior to occultation on the left of the Moon. From the Earth point of view, the Moon was moving left as it crossed in front of Mars. When Mars started to emerge on the right side it was 9:11 with the final position at 9:19 PM local time. This image is best viewed on a larger screen.

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My camera has no interval timer built in. I used this intervalometer from JJC. It is not expensive and does a good job.

Perhaps you remember a story from 20 years ago about Mars being as big as a full Moon. In case you don’t, here is what Wikipedia has to say about that:

“The Mars hoax was a hoax circulated by e-mail that began in 2003, that claimed that Mars would look as large as the full Moon to the naked eye on August 27, 2003. The hoax has since resurfaced each time before Mars is at its closest to Earth, about every 26 months.”

It is very obvious that Mars and the Moon are not even remotely the same size as shown in this enlarged part of an image.

Viewing Heavenly Bodies | 2025

Jim R 3 Comments

Desktop planetarium software helps plan viewing sessions and keep track of the planets and Moon. Many products are available for all computer platforms and smartphones. A browser search yields links to many sources often open source and free. They can be customized to your location and have a nice look and feel. For Android and Mac phones and tablets, I like SkySafari. It isn’t free but is inexpensive. For my desktop computer and laptop, I am a big fan of Starry Night 8 from Simulation Curriculum. It is more costly, but sales are often offered.

If you are near Fairfield Iowa, consider visiting the Maharishi Vedic Observatory. The link is my tour when I visited. There is no large telescope dome. Instead, it is made up of 10 solar and celestial measurement instruments, or sundials, and a collection of inner circles. One is pictured here.

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