EARLIER this year, I wrote about how to watch the faint planet Uranus disappear behind the moon, in a rare event known as a lunar occultation. Now, it is time for another lunar occultation, but this time of Mars (pictured, to the left of the moon).
Uranus, which is 2.6 billion kilometres away from Earth at the closest point in its orbit, is difficult to see with the naked eye. Mars, although much smaller, is far easier to spot. As our nearest planetary neighbour, Mars can get as close as 56 million kilometres away, at which point it is …