Lunar occultation of Jupiter

Dominic Ford, Editor
From the Lunar Occultations feed


Objects: Jupiter

The Moon will pass in front of Jupiter, creating a lunar occultation visible from Asia, Europe, western Russia and Africa. Although the occultation will only be visible across part of the world – because the Moon is so close to the Earth that its position in the sky varies by as much as two degrees across the world – a close conjunction between the pair will be more widely visible.

Unfortunately the occultation will not be visible from Fairfield.

The map below shows the visibility of the occultation across the world. Separate contours show where the disappearance of Jupiter is visible (shown in red), and where its reappearance is visible (shown in blue). Solid contours show where each event is likely to be visible through binoculars at a reasonable altitude in the sky. Dotted contours indicate where each event occurs above the horizon, but may not be visible due to the sky being too bright or the Moon being very close to the horizon.

Outside the contours, the Moon will not pass in front of Jupiter at any time, or is below the horizon at the time of the occultation. However, a close conjunction between the pair will be visible across much of the world.

The map can be downloaded in PNG , PDF or SVG format. A KMZ file , is also available, which can be opened in Google Earth to provide a higher resolution map.

The animation below shows the path of the occultation across the Earth's globe. The red circle shows where the Moon appears in front of Jupiter.

[Unable to display this video because your browser does not support HTML5]
You can download this video in MP4 or OGG format.

A complete list of the countries and territories where the occultation will be visible is as follows:

Country Time span
(UTC)
Russia 23:43–01:07
India 00:36–03:22
Saudi Arabia 23:48–01:41
Iran 23:48–01:49
Indonesia 02:07–03:48
Kazakhstan 23:58–01:16
Pakistan 00:16–02:06
Turkey 23:37–01:07
Ukraine 23:38–00:55
Afghanistan 00:14–01:46
Egypt 23:48–00:49
Turkmenistan 00:00–01:31
Uzbekistan 00:07–01:28
Thailand 02:10–03:33
Iraq 23:46–01:18
Poland 23:37–00:45
Myanmar 01:57–03:21
Italy 23:35–00:37
Malaysia 02:16–03:45
Belarus 23:41–00:48
Romania 23:36–00:48
Oman 00:10–01:51
Yemen 00:20–01:41
Vietnam 02:22–03:31
Syria 23:43–01:03
Finland 23:53–00:43
Philippines 02:37–03:43
Greece 23:36–00:44
Libya 23:47–00:31
Laos 02:20–03:17
Cambodia 02:19–03:25
Tajikistan 00:34–01:30
Germany 23:35–00:41
Bulgaria 23:36–00:47
Nepal 01:15–02:05
Hungary 23:35–00:43
Serbia 23:35–00:42
Bangladesh 01:46–02:34
China 01:03–03:03
Latvia 23:46–00:45
Czechia 23:36–00:42
Azerbaijan 23:49–01:11
Lithuania 23:44–00:45
Austria 23:35–00:40
Jordan 23:47–00:59
Georgia 23:46–01:06
Estonia 23:50–00:45
Croatia 23:35–00:40
United Arab Emirates 00:08–01:39
Tunisia 23:41–00:22
Slovakia 23:36–00:44
Sri Lanka 01:24–03:05
Bosnia and Herzegovina 23:35–00:39
Moldova 23:39–00:48
Armenia 23:48–01:07
Macedonia 23:36–00:41
Albania 23:36–00:39
Slovenia 23:35–00:39
Israel 23:46–00:53
Kyrgyzstan 00:43–01:20
Montenegro 23:35–00:39
Kuwait 23:56–01:18
Somalia 00:49–01:23
Qatar 00:05–01:30
Cyprus 23:43–00:52
Corsica 23:35–00:31
Lebanon 23:45–00:55
Maldives 01:14–02:54
Brunei 02:37–03:43
Palestinian Territory 23:47–00:52
Sweden 23:46–00:43
Switzerland 23:35–00:36
Sudan 00:20–00:33
Bahrain 00:04–01:25
Singapore 02:27–03:41
British Indian Ocean Territory 01:55–02:47
Malta 23:43–00:23
RAF Akrotiri 23:43–00:50
Paracel Islands 02:36–03:13
Christmas Island 02:48–03:43
Cocos Islands 02:43–03:34
Vatican 23:36–00:32
San Marino 23:35–00:34
Spratly Islands 02:35–03:31
Algeria 23:43–00:19

Lunar occultations are only ever visible from a small fraction of the Earth's surface. Since the Moon is much closer to the Earth than other celestial objects, its exact position in the sky differs depending on your exact location on Earth due to its large parallax. The position of the Moon as seen from two points on opposite sides of the Earth varies by up to two degrees, or four times the diameter of the full moon.

This means that if the Moon is aligned to pass in front of a particular object for an observer on one side of the Earth, it will appear up to two degrees away from that object on the other side of the Earth.

The position of Jupiter at the moment of the occultation will be as follows:

Object Right Ascension Declination Constellation Magnitude Angular Size
Jupiter 13h55m30s 10°24'S Virgo -2.1 0'36"

The coordinates above are given in J2000.0.

Next/previous occultations

« Previous Next »
Visible from the Contiguous United States Worldwide Worldwide Visible from the Contiguous United States
10 May 2038 28 Dec 2040 Occultations of Jupiter 21 Feb 2041 21 Feb 2041
14 Dec 2040 10 Jan 2041 Occultations 27 Jan 2041 27 Jan 2041

The sky on 22 Nov 2024

The sky on 22 November 2024
Sunrise
06:47
Sunset
16:28
Twilight ends
18:05
Twilight begins
05:10


Waning Gibbous

52%

21 days old

Planets
Rise Culm. Set
Mercury 08:40 13:06 17:32
Venus 10:13 14:39 19:06
Moon 22:16 05:32 12:36
Mars 20:52 04:15 11:38
Jupiter 17:26 00:53 08:20
Saturn 13:09 18:41 00:13
All times shown in EST.

Source

The circumstances of this event were computed using the DE430 planetary ephemeris published by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

This event was automatically generated by searching the ephemeris for planetary alignments which are of interest to amateur astronomers, and the text above was generated based on an estimate of your location.

Related news

18 May 2040  –  Jupiter ends retrograde motion
14 Feb 2041  –  Jupiter enters retrograde motion
16 Apr 2041  –  Jupiter at opposition
18 Jun 2041  –  Jupiter ends retrograde motion

Image credit

The Moon in conjunction with Venus and Jupiter, with the Very Large Telescope in the foreground. Image © Y. Beletsky, ESO, 2009.

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