‘After the Occultation’

Last night, I had been admiring the brilliant December full moon and had noticed the planet Mars, also shining brightly slightly to the left of it.

This morning, when I got up at around 6.30, I noticed that Mars was much closer, but now on the other side of the Moon. 

Intrigued, I discovered I had just missed a rare astronomical event - an occultation! Mars had disappeared behind the moon just before 5 am, reappearing around 6.