A treat for sky gazers, a Blue Moon will be seen in the Halloween night sky on October 31. A Blue Moon is a second full moon in a calendar month. The last time such a phenomena was seen on Halloween was in 1944 and according to the NASA the next Halloween Blue Moon will occur in 2039! Not only that, the Red Planet Mars, just past its closest approach to Earth in two years – will appear in the sky near the full moon.
This full moon moment comes on October 31, at around 8.15 pm (IST).
Mars, a little more than half the size of Earth and almost twice the size of our moon, passed through opposition less than two weeks ago.
Opposition is when Earth, in a smaller orbit, passes between the Sun and Mars, and Red planet, opposite the sun, shines at it brightest. We regularly lap Mars about every two years, but this year opposition was particularly close, making Mars exceptionally bright.
Look for Red planet in the evening sky, visible from after dusk through early morning. Even without a telescope, Mars appears noticeably yellow-orange, or red. This month, Red planet will even outshine Jupiter.
Read more about the Blue Moon here:
One can also watch the stars tonight the Star Walk 2 app. It uses your phone’s sensors and GPS to show you a map of the night sky in real time, pinpointing the location of stars, planets, constellations, comets, the ISS and satellites.
You can tap Visible Tonight if you’re not sure where to start. The feature will tell you all upcoming astronomical events and celestial objects visible for your location. Download the app here:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vitotechnology.StarWalk2Free&hl=en_US
