2025, January 13:  Wolf Moon Occults Mars

January 13, 2025:  After sundown, the Wolf Moon occults Mars.  Venus, Saturn and Jupiter are part of an evening planet display.

Moon and Mars, September 5, 2020
Photo Caption – 2020, September 5: The moon and Mars, (Composite of two images)

by Jeffrey L. Hunt

Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 7:16 a.m. CST; Sunset, 4:43 p.m. CST.  Check local sources for sunrise and sunset times. Times are calculated by the US Naval Observatory’s MICA computer program.

Four Bright Planets after Sunset

After sundown, a display of four bright planets and the Full (Wolf) moon are lined up from west-southwest to east-northeast.  At 90 minutes after sundown, brilliant Venus is about 25° up in the west-southwest. It outshines all other starlike bodies in the sky tonight.

Venus is 4.7° to dimmer Saturn’s lower right. The Evening Star overtakes the Ringed Wonder in five nights.

Bright Jupiter, the second brightest starlike body in the sky tonight, is over halfway up in the east.  It retrogrades in front of Taurus, 4.8° to Aldebaran’s upper left, the Bull’s brightest star.

Wolf Moon Occults Mars

Wolf Moon Occults Mars
Chart Caption – 2025, January 13: After sunset, the Full Wolf moon is Mars before their occultation begins.

Farther eastward, the Full (Wolf) moon is less than 20° up in the east-northeast, casting its light across the sky washing out dimmer stars and creating shadows of terrestrial features.  The moon reaches its Full phase at 4:27 p.m. Central Time, several minutes before sunset in Chicago.

Bright Mars is 1.2° to the moon’s lower left.  Last night Mars and Earth were closest.  In two nights, Earth passes between the Red Planet and the sun, a configuration known as opposition.  Mars and the sun appear in opposite directions in the sky, one setting as the other rises.

This evening the Wolf moon occults Mars.  An occultation is a type of eclipse when one celestial body blocks another.  It is given this name when the eclipsing body is larger than that of the eclipsed object.

Watch Mars Disappear and Reappear

Wolf Moon Occults Mars
Chart Caption – 2025, January 13: Minutes before the occultation begins (time is for Chicago), the moon closes in on the Mars.

The moon continuously occults dimmer, fainter stars. The occultation is notable, when it occurs with a bright star or planet.  It is interesting to note that the Full moon occulted Mars on opposition night in 2022.  Since that date, the moon has eclipsed the planet seven times during 24 lunations or lunar cycles.

Tonight’s occultation is visible from western Africa and across a large swath of North America.  For the following table of selected cities, the disappearance and reappearance times are for the local time zones. (Times for other cities are in the link above.  Convert the time listed, Universal Time, to local time zones.  Subtract five hours for EST, six for CST, seven for MST, and so on.)  Mars disappears behind the brightly lit eastern edge or limb of the moon.  The reappearance is at the bright western limb.

CityDisappearance (Local Time)Reappearance
New York9:21 p.m.10:37 p.m.
Atlanta9:06 p.m.10:12 p.m.
Chicago8:07 p.m.9:16 p.m.
Dallas7:54 p.m.8:57 p.m.
Albuquerque6:51 p.m.7:52 p.m.
Los Angeles5:51 p.m.6:45 p.m.

The disappear and reappearance can be viewed through a binocular to spotting scope.  A telescope can see the two events closeup.

Look for the Wolf Moon occultation of Mars across large regions of the Americas tonight.

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