Preparation of composite of two images taken three hours apart.

Lunar Occultation of Mars.
If the sky had been clear on Tuesday evening a perfect Lunar Occultation of Mars would have been visible to the north of Mutare with the disappearance of the red Planet Mars behind the shadow side of the Moon at 8.54 pm and its reappearance on the sunlit side at 10.28 pm. Unfortunately the sky became cloudy in the afternoon with overcast and then rain which persisted until after midnight. However almost continuous observation of the sky from 8 pm until midnight provided just two glimpses of Mars close to the Moon through small gaps in thinning cloud just before and an hour and a half after occultation. First it was barely visible through thin cloud at 8.54 pm approaching the shadow side of the Moon and then at 11.59 pm briefly appeared as a distinct orange dot one lunar diameter away from the bright side. More information on the occultation at https://in-the-sky.org/news.php?id=20230103_16_100