[X] My Assistant

[Stu]

There's a nice sight on view in the sky this evening, if your sky's clear. If you look to the east after sunset you'll see the Moon shining VERY close to Mars, close enough so they both fit in the same binoc field of view in fact. Nice chance to show your kids the next two targets for NASA's manned spaceflight program shining close together in the sky..?

UK observers have an extra treat - at around 4am on Christmas Eve the Moon will be so close to Mars a telescope's low power eyepiece should show the two at the same time...



And I believe that if you're in the NE of the UK you'll actually see an occultation of Mars by the Moon, so any UMSF members to the east of the UK might like to look at that with their PC's planetarium program, I haven't time to check out their circumstances right now, sorry.