Lunar occultation of Aldebaran

Dominic Ford, Editor
From the Lunar Occultations feed


Objects: Aldebaran

The Moon will pass in front of Aldebaran (Alpha Tauri), creating a lunar occultation visible from Europe, western Russia, Asia, Greenland and Northern 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.

The occultation will be visible from Cambridge. It will begin with the disappearance of Aldebaran (Alpha Tauri) behind the Moon at 14:16 EST, though in daylight. Its reappearance will be visible at 15:14 EST, though in daylight.

Extreme caution is necessary when pointing binoculars or telescopes at the sky when the Sun is above the horizon, as even a momentary glance at the Sun through such an instrument can cause permanent blindness.

The map below shows the visibility of the occultation across the world. Separate contours show where the disappearance of Aldebaran (Alpha Tauri) 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 Aldebaran (Alpha Tauri) 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 Aldebaran (Alpha Tauri).

[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 21:08–22:39
Greenland 20:06–21:12
Kazakhstan 21:31–22:38
Turkey 21:31–22:41
Sweden 20:57–22:10
Ukraine 21:15–22:34
Iran 21:44–22:42
Norway 20:51–22:02
France 20:39–22:13
Finland 21:05–22:07
Spain 20:34–22:06
Germany 20:54–22:18
Iraq 21:49–22:42
Poland 21:03–22:24
Italy 21:01–22:25
Great Britain 20:35–22:03
Saudi Arabia 22:02–22:38
Belarus 21:12–22:25
Romania 21:18–22:32
Turkmenistan 21:42–22:41
Iceland 20:29–21:30
Syria 21:49–22:41
Greece 21:29–22:32
Algeria 21:16–22:06
Uzbekistan 21:38–22:38
Bulgaria 21:24–22:33
Hungary 21:11–22:26
Serbia 21:17–22:29
Ireland 20:30–21:53
Latvia 21:08–22:17
Czechia 21:03–22:21
Azerbaijan 21:42–22:41
Portugal 20:37–21:51
Lithuania 21:08–22:19
Austria 21:03–22:21
Jordan 21:58–22:38
Georgia 21:37–22:39
Estonia 21:07–22:13
Denmark 20:54–22:11
Croatia 21:11–22:25
Tunisia 21:26–22:11
Slovakia 21:11–22:25
Bosnia and Herzegovina 21:15–22:26
Netherlands 20:50–22:09
Switzerland 20:59–22:16
Canada 19:32–20:41
Belgium 20:49–22:09
Egypt 22:07–22:30
Moldova 21:22–22:31
Armenia 21:42–22:41
Macedonia 21:26–22:30
Albania 21:24–22:28
Slovenia 21:09–22:22
Northern Ireland 20:34–21:52
Israel 21:59–22:36
Morocco 21:04–21:34
Montenegro 21:21–22:27
Kuwait 22:05–22:40
Cyprus 21:51–22:37
Corsica 21:09–22:15
Lebanon 21:54–22:38
Faroe Islands 20:39–21:43
Mallorca 21:05–22:04
Palestinian Territory 22:01–22:34
Luxembourg 20:55–22:10
Shetland 20:44–21:50
The Portuguese Azores 19:47–21:09
Aland Islands 21:05–22:05
Orkney 20:42–21:50
Menorca 21:07–22:06
Svalbard and Jan Mayen 20:51–21:22
Isle of Man 20:38–21:54
Ibiza 21:05–21:59
Libya 22:05–22:11
Andorra 20:57–22:04
Malta 21:38–22:13
Jersey 20:43–22:00
Guernsey 20:42–21:59
Melilla 21:16–21:33
RAF Akrotiri 21:52–22:36
Gibraltar 21:02–21:37
Vatican 21:16–22:19
Liechtenstein 21:03–22:15
Monaco 21:04–22:13
San Marino 21:12–22:19
Isla de Alborán 21:09–21:39
Islas Chafarinas 21:18–21:34

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.

At the time of the occultation, the Moon will be 0 days past new moon and will be 69% illuminated. Aldebaran (Alpha Tauri) will disappear behind the unilluminated side of the Moon and reappear from behind the illuminated side of the Moon.

The position of Aldebaran (Alpha Tauri) at the moment of the occultation will be as follows:

Object Right Ascension Declination Constellation Magnitude Angular Size
Aldebaran (Alpha Tauri) 04h35m50s 16°30'N Taurus 1.0 0'00"

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 Jan 2055 10 Jan 2055 Occultations of Aldebaran (Alpha Tauri) 06 Mar 2055 06 Mar 2055
10 Jan 2055 31 Jan 2055 Occultations 12 Feb 2055 12 Feb 2055

The sky on 22 Nov 2024

The sky on 22 November 2024
Sunrise
06:41
Sunset
16:16
Twilight ends
17:55
Twilight begins
05:02


Waning Crescent

45%

21 days old

Planets
Rise Culm. Set
Mercury 08:36 12:57 17:19
Venus 10:09 14:31 18:53
Moon 22:03 05:23 12:29
Mars 20:40 04:06 11:33
Jupiter 17:14 00:45 08:16
Saturn 13:02 18:32 00:03
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.

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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