There will be a grazing occultation of Mars by the Moon Wednesday, Dec 7 just before 9 PM in the Austin area. The current forecast shows that clouds may let us see the event here. Whether Mars is completely occulted by the moon or a near miss depends on your exact location north or south. South of San Antonio Mars is not completely obscured. If visible it should be a spectacular view of the universe in motion either with the unaided eye, binoculars, or telescope.

The animated GIF simulation above shows the occulation from a telescope tracking Mars from NW Austin, Texas. It is 75x the speed of the actual event. The simulation images were captured form SkySafari Pro and the animation created using Adobe Photoshop.