January’s full moon, the “Wolf Moon,” rose alongside Mars at its brightest, occulting it for a short period as seen from North America. Here are the best images.

Mars will seem to disappear behind the full wolf moon Monday for many sky-gazers. Throughout January, also look up to see Venus, Saturn and Jupiter in the night sky.

The full moon is called the wolf moon because of the idea that during January’s long, cold and dark nights, wolves make sure everyone can hear them. Like many other moons, it also has other names. Some call it the “Ice Moon,” “Old Moon” or the moon after Yule.

During severe weather and other natural phenomena events that have occurred in the skies above Southwest and Central Virginia in the past weeks, WFXR News has received some spectacular photo submissions from viewers.

The moon performed a cosmic ballet with Mars this week. On Monday evening (Jan. 13), the Full Wolf Moon passed in front of Mars in what's known as a lunar occultation, during which another celestial object appears to disappear behind the moon from our vantage point on Earth.

Stunning pictures show the first full Moon of the year over Dorset's skies. The full Moon rose at around 5.30pm on Monday and was visible in the skies until Wednesday morning. Names are given to full Moons to reflect what is happening in nature at different times of the year.