Close encounters of Moon, Mars, M45 and M44 in 2025

2025-06-30T09:28:18+00:0030 June 2025|Appulse, Conjunction, Mars, Moon, News, Open Cluster|

Close Encounters of 3 kinds – a little tongue-in-cheek 🙂

Inverted Moon images are always interesting.

  • 1st – the Moon in the Pleiades – tricky since the Moon is so much brighter so only the unilluminated – by the Sun – side of the Moon is shown here but stretched to show Earthlight.
    250mm f4.8 Newtonian and QHY168C.
  • 2nd – the moon and Mars approach M44 the beehive. Again the Moon is overexposed apart from the earthlit side.
    250mm f4.8 Newtonian and QHY168C.
  • 3rd – Mars in the Beehive Cluster -M44 Praesepe – “the Manger”.
    Canon 600D and 300mm lens.