From the Yucatan Peninsula, the Moon and Mars will star in various astronomical phenomena visible today, Wednesday, December 7, such as a conjunction between the two, and even the red planet will be in perigee with the Earth, informed Yucatan astronomer Eddie Ariel Salazar Gamboa.
Likewise, while Selene will be in its full moon phase, the Greek god of war will be at its brightest, since it will be 100 percent illuminated by the Sun.
He predicted that it will be a good astronomical spectacle, one of the best in December, as long as weather conditions allow it, and according to the National Meteorological Service (SMN), a high pressure system prevents the formation of clouds over the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula, a phenomenon that will predominate in the next three days.
The academic from the Instituto Tecnológico de Mérida (ITM) explained that both stars will be in Toro, so the event will last throughout the night of Wednesday 7 and the early morning of Thursday 8.
The Moon will rise at 16:57 hours on Wednesday 7 and will set at 5:54 hours on Thursday 8, it will be in full moon or in its full phase at 10:07 hours, that is to say, it will be 100 percent illuminated.
Likewise, it will be 14.7 days old and will be 397,447 kilometers from Earth, said the professor emeritus of the Autonomous University of Yucatan (UADY).
In the case of Mars, it will appear at 17:06 hours and will hide at 6:37 hours, it will be in perigee, its closest point to Earth, at 0.549 Astronomical Units, that is, 82 million 350 thousand kilometers.
The coordinator of the Astronomy Group “Hipatia of Alexandria” of the ITM announced that the red planet will be 100 percent illuminated, so it will have a magnitude of -1.9.
Likewise, it will be in opposition, that is, at the exact moment when the Sun appears on the horizon.
The “Tourism Jaguar 2020” award of the Mexican Association of the Tourism Industry (AMIT) Yucatan announced that there will be a conjunction between the Moon and Mars, that is to say, they will be extremely close, in an apparent way, in the celestial vault.
The maximum visual approach will be at 21:09 hours, and they will be at a distance of 0.3 degrees of arc.
The Distinguished Teacher of the State of Yucatan 2021 award recipient recalled that a similar phenomenon occurred on February 19, 2021.
Finally, he added that Aldebaran is the alpha star of Taurus, it has a brightness of 1.05, which will emerge over the horizon at 12:07 hours and will set at 1:05 hours.
Also, “as an eyewitness” of the alignment will be Pleiades, the star cluster of Taurus, also known as Messier 45 or M45.
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