A very special astronomical event occurred on December 8th 2022

The lunar occultation of Mars - this event occurs when both orbits of the Moon and Mars overlap resulting in Mars disappearing behind the Moon for an hour. This particular occultation happened during a full moon which added to the utter amazement of this view

On Mars itself one of the two permanent ice caps can be seen which contains a predicted 1.6 million cubic km of ice. The darker black regions were once thought to be vegetation however we now know its the presence of mafic rocks like basalt. The overall orange / red colour is due to the rocks and minerals reacting with oxygen to create iron oxide

Both the Moon and Mars where captured using a Nexstar 4se telescope with a dlsr and 5x Barlow lens creating a focal length of 6625mm