August 15, 2020
The Moon has changed phase thousands of times since the beginning of the cosmos, but only once did it shine on the night you arrived.
Mars at the Moon's Edge
Birthday · August 15, 2020
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APOD published August 15, 2020. Credit: Sergio Scauso. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
Does the Moon ever block out Mars? Yes, the Moon occasionally moves in front of all of the Solar System's planets. Just this past Sunday, as visible from some locations in South America, a waning gibbous Moon eclipsed Mars. The featured image from Córdoba, Argentina captured this occultation well, showing a familiar cratered Moon in the foreground with the bright planet Mars unusually adjacent. Within a few seconds, Mars then disappeared behind the Moon, only to reappear a few minutes later across the Moon. Today the Moon moves close to, but not in front of, Venus. Because alignments will not have changed by much, the next two times the Moon passes through this part of the sky – in early September and early October – it will also occult Mars, as seen from parts of South America. Perseid Meteor Shower: Notable images submitted to APOD
Image credit: Sergio Scauso