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

Lunar occultation of Regulus

Dominic Ford, Editor
From the Lunar Occultations feed

Objects: Regulus

The Moon will pass in front of Regulus (Alpha Leonis), creating a lunar occultation visible from Africa, Western Asia, Southern Europe, Northern America and France. 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 Jacksonville, 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 Regulus (Alpha Leonis) 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 Regulus (Alpha Leonis) 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 23:54–02:15
Sudan 01:19–03:12
Libya 00:34–02:41
Saudi Arabia 01:43–03:01
Chad 00:54–02:51
Niger 00:37–02:31
Ethiopia 01:51–03:17
Egypt 01:16–02:44
Mauritania 23:51–01:32
Mali 00:03–02:01
Democratic Republic of the Congo 01:47–03:06
Nigeria 00:56–02:33
Spain 23:57–01:26
Somalia 02:03–03:19
Central African Republic 01:32–03:01
Tanzania 02:14–03:13
Kenya 02:02–03:17
Morocco 23:47–01:35
Yemen 01:58–03:07
Canada 23:25–00:09
France 00:18–01:17
Western Sahara 23:46–01:22
Cameroon 01:14–02:35
Uganda 02:00–03:11
Italy 00:35–01:47
Tunisia 00:29–01:59
Burkina Faso 00:45–01:46
Eritrea 01:49–03:07
Portugal 23:54–01:16
The Contiguous United States 23:22–00:04
Greece 01:13–01:56
Republic of the Congo 01:53–02:38
Benin 01:04–01:50
Jordan 01:47–02:17
Burundi 02:19–03:01
Rwanda 02:14–03:03
Djibouti 02:01–03:09
Oman 02:14–02:58
Israel 01:46–02:17
The Canary Islands 23:37–01:09
Corsica 00:41–01:25
Mallorca 00:21–01:28
The Portuguese Azores 23:26–00:44
Menorca 00:25–01:27
Ibiza 00:17–01:27
Andorra 00:23–01:16
Malta 00:49–01:49
Saint Pierre and Miquelon 23:32–00:07
Melilla 00:04–01:27
Bermuda 23:08–00:05
Palestinian Territory 01:51–02:04
Gibraltar 00:00–01:21
Vatican 00:56–01:21
Monaco 00:44–01:12
Madeira 23:39–01:02
The Savage Islands 23:40–01:03
Isla de Alborán 00:04–01:25
Islas Chafarinas 00:06–01:28

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 Regulus (Alpha Leonis) at the moment of the occultation will be as follows:

Object Right Ascension Declination Constellation Magnitude Angular Size
Regulus (Alpha Leonis) 10h08m20s 11°58'N Leo 1.4 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
09 Dec 1998 05 Jan 1999 Occultations of Regulus (Alpha Leonis) 01 Mar 1999 22 May 1999
27 Jan 1999 27 Jan 1999 Occultations 23 Feb 1999 19 Apr 1999

The sky on 16 Jun 2024

The sky on 16 June 2024
Sunrise
06:21
Sunset
20:30
Twilight ends
22:07
Twilight begins
04:44

10-day old moon
Waxing Gibbous

78%

10 days old

Planets
Rise Culm. Set
Mercury 06:30 13:36 20:41
Venus 06:37 13:39 20:42
Moon 15:35 21:21 03:00
Mars 03:26 09:58 16:30
Jupiter 05:03 11:56 18:49
Saturn 01:19 07:08 12:56
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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Jacksonville

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30.33°N
81.66°W
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