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

Lunar occultation of Venus

Dominic Ford, Editor
From the Lunar Occultations feed

Objects: Venus

The Moon will pass in front of Venus, creating a lunar occultation visible from Asia, Europe, Africa, western Russia and Greenland. 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 Cambridge.

The map below shows the visibility of the occultation across the world. Separate contours show where the disappearance of Venus 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 Venus 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 Venus.

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 07:02–09:28
India 09:08–10:51
Saudi Arabia 07:49–10:27
China 09:07–10:22
Iran 07:54–10:23
Greenland 06:34–07:37
Kazakhstan 07:58–09:37
Egypt 07:25–09:42
Pakistan 08:49–10:30
Turkey 07:10–09:36
Libya 07:01–08:59
Ukraine 07:01–09:04
Sweden 06:53–08:17
France 06:25–08:10
Afghanistan 08:42–10:15
Spain 06:20–07:59
Algeria 06:38–08:06
Turkmenistan 08:15–09:57
Uzbekistan 08:23–09:52
Norway 06:50–08:08
Germany 06:38–08:21
Sudan 08:14–09:51
Finland 07:15–08:17
Iraq 07:49–09:59
Poland 06:50–08:35
Yemen 08:48–10:32
Italy 06:36–08:36
Great Britain 06:26–08:00
Belarus 07:06–08:41
Romania 06:57–08:54
Oman 08:45–10:31
Iceland 06:44–07:44
Somalia 09:19–10:26
Syria 07:38–09:37
Greece 06:58–09:05
Tunisia 06:46–08:14
Kyrgyzstan 08:57–09:44
Tajikistan 08:53–09:54
Nepal 09:20–10:24
Morocco 06:33–07:29
Bulgaria 07:01–08:56
Bangladesh 09:28–10:33
Hungary 06:50–08:37
Serbia 06:54–08:44
Eritrea 08:43–10:02
Ireland 06:25–07:51
Latvia 07:07–08:29
Czechia 06:46–08:28
Azerbaijan 07:55–09:37
Portugal 06:21–07:39
Lithuania 07:06–08:30
Austria 06:40–08:27
Ethiopia 09:04–10:03
Jordan 07:43–09:38
Georgia 07:41–09:27
Estonia 07:12–08:24
Denmark 06:47–08:16
Croatia 06:45–08:34
United Arab Emirates 08:40–10:22
Slovakia 06:52–08:35
Sri Lanka 09:45–10:51
Bosnia and Herzegovina 06:49–08:36
Netherlands 06:36–08:08
Switzerland 06:36–08:15
Belgium 06:35–08:08
Moldova 07:11–08:51
Bhutan 09:28–10:23
Armenia 07:52–09:33
Macedonia 06:59–08:46
Albania 06:56–08:42
Slovenia 06:46–08:27
Northern Ireland 06:30–07:52
Israel 07:41–09:33
Djibouti 09:15–10:03
Montenegro 06:54–08:38
Kuwait 08:16–10:02
Qatar 08:34–10:14
Cyprus 07:31–09:22
Corsica 06:39–08:14
Lebanon 07:40–09:29
Myanmar 09:33–10:20
Faroe Islands 06:46–07:50
Maldives 09:49–10:50
Mallorca 06:34–07:56
Palestinian Territory 07:42–09:31
Luxembourg 06:37–08:08
Shetland 06:47–07:55
The Portuguese Azores 06:12–07:08
Aland Islands 07:13–08:14
Orkney 06:42–07:54
Menorca 06:35–07:59
Bahrain 08:32–10:10
Svalbard and Jan Mayen 07:19–07:37
Isle of Man 06:32–07:53
Ibiza 06:33–07:50
Andorra 06:30–07:56
Malta 06:56–08:23
Jersey 06:28–07:54
Guernsey 06:28–07:54
Melilla 06:37–07:28
RAF Akrotiri 07:33–09:21
Gibraltar 06:32–07:26
Vatican 06:44–08:20
Liechtenstein 06:40–08:14
Monaco 06:37–08:09
San Marino 06:44–08:20
Isla de Alborán 06:35–07:30
Islas Chafarinas 06:38–07:29

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 Venus at the moment of the occultation will be as follows:

Object Right Ascension Declination Constellation Magnitude Angular Size
Venus 11h15m10s 6°14'N Leo -4.0 0'11"

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 Mar 1959 20 Jan 1961 Occultations of Venus 05 Jul 1962 31 May 1965
29 Sep 1961 05 Oct 1961 Occultations 26 Oct 1961 23 Nov 1961

The sky on 16 Jun 2024

The sky on 16 June 2024
Sunrise
05:04
Sunset
20:23
Twilight ends
22:38
Twilight begins
02:49

10-day old moon
Waxing Gibbous

79%

10 days old

Planets
Rise Culm. Set
Mercury 05:11 12:54 20:36
Venus 05:19 12:57 20:36
Moon 15:06 20:38 02:00
Mars 02:27 09:16 16:05
Jupiter 03:51 11:14 18:37
Saturn 00:45 06:26 12:06
All times shown in EDT.

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

08 Aug 1961  –  Venus at highest altitude in morning sky
13 Jun 1962  –  Venus at highest altitude in evening sky
03 Sep 1962  –  Venus at greatest elongation east
27 Dec 1962  –  Venus at highest altitude in morning sky

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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Cambridge

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42.38°N
71.11°W
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