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

Lunar occultation of Beta1 Scorpii

Dominic Ford, Editor
From the Lunar Occultations feed

Objects: Acrab

The Moon will pass in front of Beta1 Scorpii (Acrab), creating a lunar occultation visible from Africa, Europe, Western Asia, western Russia and western Iran. 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 Beta1 Scorpii (Acrab) 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 Beta1 Scorpii (Acrab) 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 23:20–00:46
Saudi Arabia 00:22–02:12
Russia 23:58–01:56
Libya 23:33–01:22
Sudan 00:08–01:47
Egypt 23:59–01:47
Turkey 00:00–01:56
Ukraine 23:57–01:35
France 23:22–00:47
Iran 00:36–02:13
Spain 23:17–00:38
Chad 23:49–01:12
Germany 23:36–00:57
Iraq 00:28–02:07
Poland 23:48–01:09
Morocco 23:18–00:23
Niger 23:45–00:50
Italy 23:31–01:05
Sweden 23:50–01:00
Great Britain 23:24–00:41
Yemen 01:02–02:06
Belarus 00:02–01:19
Romania 23:53–01:22
Norway 23:45–00:53
Syria 00:21–01:52
Greece 23:49–01:26
Tunisia 23:30–00:51
Finland 00:04–01:09
Bulgaria 23:55–01:22
Hungary 23:47–01:09
Serbia 23:50–01:12
Ireland 23:23–00:33
Eritrea 00:47–01:46
Latvia 00:01–01:11
Czechia 23:44–01:02
Azerbaijan 00:37–02:00
Portugal 23:16–00:23
Lithuania 00:01–01:09
Austria 23:38–01:00
Jordan 00:21–01:51
Ethiopia 00:58–01:40
Georgia 00:27–01:54
Estonia 00:04–01:09
Denmark 23:44–00:56
Croatia 23:42–01:05
Slovakia 23:49–01:08
Bosnia and Herzegovina 23:45–01:06
Netherlands 23:34–00:47
Switzerland 23:33–00:51
Belgium 23:33–00:45
Moldova 00:05–01:21
Armenia 00:35–01:56
Macedonia 23:51–01:13
Albania 23:49–01:10
Slovenia 23:42–01:00
Northern Ireland 23:28–00:34
Israel 00:19–01:44
Montenegro 23:48–01:07
Kuwait 00:49–02:07
Qatar 01:02–02:13
Cyprus 00:13–01:39
Corsica 23:33–00:49
United Arab Emirates 01:07–02:13
Lebanon 00:20–01:44
Mallorca 23:24–00:37
Palestinian Territory 00:19–01:44
Luxembourg 23:35–00:46
Aland Islands 00:02–01:01
Menorca 23:26–00:39
Bahrain 01:00–02:11
Isle of Man 23:30–00:35
Ibiza 23:23–00:34
Andorra 23:25–00:36
Malta 23:39–00:57
Jersey 23:27–00:35
Guernsey 23:26–00:34
Melilla 23:20–00:22
RAF Akrotiri 00:14–01:38
Gibraltar 23:18–00:19
Vatican 23:38–00:54
Liechtenstein 23:37–00:49
Monaco 23:32–00:45
San Marino 23:39–00:54
Madeira 23:21–23:51
Isla de Alborán 23:20–00:22
Islas Chafarinas 23:20–00:23

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 Beta1 Scorpii (Acrab) at the moment of the occultation will be as follows:

Object Right Ascension Declination Constellation Magnitude Angular Size
Beta1 Scorpii (Acrab) 16h05m20s 19°48'S Scorpius 2.6 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
22 Feb 1976 20 Mar 1976 Occultations of Beta1 Scorpii (Acrab) 14 May 1976 08 Jul 1976
21 Mar 1976 15 Apr 1976 Occultations 11 May 1976 15 May 1976

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

78%

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.

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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