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

Lunar occultation of Spica

Dominic Ford, Editor
From the Lunar Occultations feed

Objects: Spica

The Moon will pass in front of Spica (Alpha Virginis), creating a lunar occultation visible from Africa, Europe and Northern America. 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, though it will be visible from eastern parts of the Contiguous United States.

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

Map showing where the occultation is visible

Outside the contours, the Moon will not pass in front of Spica (Alpha Virginis) 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.

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

Country Time span
(UTC)
Algeria 02:52–04:49
Libya 03:28–05:07
Mali 03:00–04:52
Greenland 02:07–03:15
Niger 03:29–05:09
Canada 02:00–02:58
Chad 03:46–05:23
Mauritania 02:51–04:34
Nigeria 03:39–05:15
France 02:49–03:57
Spain 02:41–04:05
Morocco 02:47–04:15
Cameroon 03:57–05:23
Great Britain 02:45–03:41
Italy 03:16–04:18
Ivory Coast 03:32–04:46
Western Sahara 02:47–04:14
Burkina Faso 03:27–04:55
Gabon 04:14–05:21
Iceland 02:29–03:19
Guinea 03:24–04:31
Ghana 03:35–04:56
Central African Republic 04:09–05:25
Senegal 03:10–04:18
Tunisia 03:21–04:31
Germany 03:16–03:46
Republic of the Congo 04:18–05:25
Ireland 02:39–03:35
Portugal 02:42–03:58
Benin 03:38–05:00
Liberia 03:40–04:30
Sierra Leone 03:34–04:20
Greece 03:53–04:27
Netherlands 03:08–03:39
Switzerland 03:15–03:51
Togo 03:37–04:58
Belgium 03:06–03:42
Guinea-Bissau 03:25–04:10
Northern Ireland 02:44–03:33
Equatorial Guinea 04:07–05:17
Austria 03:25–03:46
The Canary Islands 02:40–04:01
Corsica 03:21–04:03
Gambia 03:21–04:09
Croatia 03:39–03:55
Faroe Islands 02:49–03:23
Mallorca 03:06–04:05
Albania 03:54–04:06
Luxembourg 03:14–03:42
Shetland 03:00–03:23
The Portuguese Azores 02:16–03:32
Orkney 02:55–03:26
The Contiguous United States 02:07–02:36
Sao Tome and Principe 04:12–05:10
Menorca 03:09–04:04
Isle of Man 02:50–03:33
Ibiza 03:03–04:05
Andorra 03:02–03:57
Malta 03:37–04:19
Saint Pierre and Miquelon 02:04–02:49
Jersey 02:54–03:42
Guernsey 02:53–03:41
Melilla 02:56–04:07
Gibraltar 02:51–04:02
Vatican 03:31–04:01
Liechtenstein 03:24–03:46
Monaco 03:17–03:56
San Marino 03:32–03:55
Slovenia 03:40–03:46
Svalbard and Jan Mayen 02:53–03:13
Madeira 02:35–03:51
The Savage Islands 02:40–03:55
Isla de Alborán 02:55–04:05
Islas Chafarinas 02:57–04:07

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 Spica (Alpha Virginis) at the moment of the occultation will be as follows:

Object Right Ascension Declination Constellation Magnitude Angular Size
Spica (Alpha Virginis) 13h25m10s 11°09'S Virgo 1.1 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
11 Jan 1950 07 Feb 1950 Occultations of Spica (Alpha Virginis) 03 Apr 1950 16 Dec 1957
11 Jan 1950 04 Mar 1950 Occultations 10 Mar 1950 08 Apr 1950

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

21-day old moon
Waning Crescent

45%

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.

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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