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 Africa, Asia and Southern Europe. 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)
India 08:30–09:52
Algeria 05:57–07:31
Sudan 06:23–08:53
Saudi Arabia 07:20–09:31
Iran 07:57–09:40
Libya 06:15–08:07
China 08:35–09:52
Democratic Republic of the Congo 06:19–08:18
Kazakhstan 08:28–09:38
Chad 06:08–08:06
Mali 05:50–07:17
Niger 05:53–07:42
Ethiopia 06:51–09:08
Mauritania 05:49–07:06
Egypt 06:43–08:41
Pakistan 08:17–09:48
Nigeria 05:56–07:38
Afghanistan 08:18–09:43
Somalia 07:22–09:19
Turkmenistan 08:17–09:32
Central African Republic 06:10–08:10
Kenya 06:56–08:48
Uzbekistan 08:28–09:34
Iraq 07:45–09:08
Morocco 05:56–07:09
Cameroon 06:04–07:39
Yemen 07:21–09:27
Tanzania 06:55–08:15
Spain 06:18–07:05
Oman 07:54–09:37
Ivory Coast 05:53–06:55
Western Sahara 05:50–07:03
Republic of the Congo 06:15–07:40
Burkina Faso 05:51–07:09
Kyrgyzstan 08:32–09:38
Gabon 06:13–07:21
Guinea 05:51–06:50
Uganda 06:47–08:29
Ghana 05:53–07:03
Senegal 05:49–06:49
Tajikistan 08:30–09:42
Tunisia 06:27–07:23
Syria 07:41–08:33
Nepal 08:44–09:52
Eritrea 07:04–09:04
Benin 05:55–07:11
Bangladesh 08:56–09:50
Jordan 07:28–08:35
Liberia 05:57–06:41
United Arab Emirates 07:56–09:31
Sierra Leone 05:55–06:42
Togo 05:54–07:04
Portugal 06:17–07:03
Guinea-Bissau 05:52–06:44
Burundi 06:57–07:59
Equatorial Guinea 06:07–07:14
Israel 07:27–08:27
Azerbaijan 08:18–08:47
Rwanda 06:53–08:04
Djibouti 07:19–09:04
Bhutan 08:55–09:51
Kuwait 07:52–09:11
Turkey 08:11–08:35
Qatar 07:55–09:23
Gambia 05:51–06:45
Lebanon 07:42–08:17
The Canary Islands 05:58–07:00
Palestinian Territory 07:33–08:23
Sao Tome and Principe 06:12–07:02
Bahrain 07:55–09:19
Ibiza 06:42–07:01
Melilla 06:19–07:06
Armenia 08:24–08:30
Gibraltar 06:19–07:04
Isla de Alborán 06:21–07:05
Islas Chafarinas 06:20–07:06

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 19h55m30s 21°00'S Sagittarius -1.9 0'31"

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
18 Nov 2052 18 Nov 2052 Occultations of Jupiter 12 Mar 2056 07 Jun 2059
08 Apr 2055 15 Jan 2056 Occultations 12 Mar 2056 31 Oct 2056

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 Crescent

48%

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.

Warning

Never attempt to point a pair of binoculars or a telescope at an object close to the Sun. Doing so may result in immediate and permanent blindness.

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

25 Aug 2055  –  Jupiter ends retrograde motion
29 May 2056  –  Jupiter enters retrograde motion
29 Jul 2056  –  Jupiter at opposition
27 Sep 2056  –  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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