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

Lunar occultation of Delta Scorpii

Dominic Ford, Editor
From the Lunar Occultations feed

Objects: Dschubba

The Moon will pass in front of Delta Scorpii (Dschubba), creating a lunar occultation visible from Africa, Europe and Western Asia. 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 Delta Scorpii (Dschubba) 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 Delta Scorpii (Dschubba) 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 23:19–01:17
Sudan 00:26–02:19
Libya 23:47–01:50
Saudi Arabia 00:49–02:27
Chad 00:02–01:56
Democratic Republic of the Congo 00:36–02:11
Niger 23:43–01:33
Mali 23:23–01:04
Ethiopia 01:00–02:30
Egypt 00:26–02:05
Mauritania 23:19–00:38
Nigeria 23:52–01:35
Turkey 00:32–01:42
France 23:30–00:43
Spain 23:18–00:41
Central African Republic 00:23–02:05
Somalia 01:17–02:32
Germany 23:52–00:42
Kenya 01:10–02:24
Morocco 23:16–00:43
Cameroon 00:10–01:38
Italy 23:47–01:03
Great Britain 23:29–00:31
Iraq 00:57–02:08
Yemen 01:10–02:30
Western Sahara 23:16–00:30
Burkina Faso 23:44–00:58
Uganda 01:05–02:16
Romania 00:24–01:00
Syria 00:51–01:48
Tanzania 01:18–02:08
Republic of the Congo 00:36–01:44
Greece 00:16–01:23
Tunisia 23:43–01:05
Ghana 23:54–00:49
Gabon 00:33–01:28
Bulgaria 00:26–01:06
Hungary 00:14–00:48
Serbia 00:18–01:00
Eritrea 00:59–02:26
Ireland 23:26–00:25
Poland 00:14–00:38
Czechia 00:07–00:41
Portugal 23:16–00:30
Austria 23:57–00:45
Benin 23:53–01:02
Jordan 00:50–01:53
Croatia 00:05–00:55
Denmark 00:03–00:30
Bosnia and Herzegovina 00:10–00:55
Netherlands 23:47–00:34
Switzerland 23:48–00:42
Norway 00:00–00:26
Slovakia 00:17–00:43
Togo 23:55–00:53
Belgium 23:45–00:35
Macedonia 00:20–01:03
Albania 00:16–01:03
Ivory Coast 00:01–00:32
Slovenia 00:05–00:47
Northern Ireland 23:32–00:25
Burundi 01:23–01:59
Equatorial Guinea 00:25–01:19
Israel 00:48–01:51
Rwanda 01:17–02:03
Djibouti 01:14–02:27
Montenegro 00:15–00:58
The Canary Islands 23:14–00:21
Cyprus 00:45–01:35
Corsica 23:50–00:48
Sweden 00:17–00:27
Lebanon 00:50–01:43
Mallorca 23:35–00:43
Palestinian Territory 00:48–01:47
Luxembourg 23:50–00:35
The Portuguese Azores 23:04–00:06
Menorca 23:38–00:44
Isle of Man 23:37–00:26
Ibiza 23:33–00:42
Andorra 23:35–00:38
Malta 00:00–01:03
Jersey 23:35–00:30
Guernsey 23:34–00:29
Melilla 23:24–00:38
RAF Akrotiri 00:46–01:35
Gibraltar 23:21–00:34
Vatican 23:59–00:50
Liechtenstein 23:56–00:40
Monaco 23:48–00:43
San Marino 00:00–00:47
Sao Tome and Principe 00:40–00:57
Madeira 23:11–00:16
The Savage Islands 23:13–00:16
Isla de Alborán 23:24–00:37
Islas Chafarinas 23:25–00:39
Orkney 23:45–00:25

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 Delta Scorpii (Dschubba) at the moment of the occultation will be as follows:

Object Right Ascension Declination Constellation Magnitude Angular Size
Delta Scorpii (Dschubba) 16h00m20s 22°37'S Scorpius 2.3 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
21 Sep 1974 08 Apr 1985 Occultations of Delta Scorpii (Dschubba) 02 Jun 1985 13 Mar 1993
12 Jul 1984 22 Apr 1985 Occultations 08 May 1985 08 Dec 1985

The sky on 17 Jul 2024

The sky on 17 July 2024
Sunrise
05:32
Sunset
20:22
Twilight ends
22:22
Twilight begins
03:31

12-day old moon
Waxing Gibbous

84%

12 days old

Planets
Rise Culm. Set
Mercury 07:50 14:44 21:39
Venus 06:31 13:47 21:04
Moon 17:22 21:50 02:13
Mars 01:38 08:51 16:03
Jupiter 02:25 09:49 17:12
Saturn 22:51 04:32 10:13
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.

Share

Fairfield

Latitude:
Longitude:
Timezone:

41.14°N
73.26°W
EDT

Color scheme