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

Lunar occultation of Uranus

Dominic Ford, Editor
From the Lunar Occultations feed

Objects: Uranus

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

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 21:03–12:21
Algeria 02:52–19:35
Kazakhstan 21:04–03:31
Libya 00:21–18:30
Egypt 00:26–18:31
Turkey 21:02–18:25
Niger 03:29–18:23
Ukraine 21:05–05:48
Sweden 18:34–05:16
France 02:49–20:09
Chad 00:17–18:41
Spain 02:41–20:21
Finland 18:30–05:13
Germany 03:16–19:46
Norway 18:27–05:10
Poland 19:11–05:32
Italy 03:16–20:23
Great Britain 02:45–19:49
Iraq 21:02–18:08
Belarus 19:01–05:31
Romania 19:26–05:47
Saudi Arabia 21:05–18:45
Morocco 02:47–03:02
Iran 21:02–18:46
Sudan 00:17–18:59
Syria 21:02–18:04
Greece 03:54–02:42
Tunisia 03:21–19:12
Bulgaria 06:53–05:50
Hungary 06:47–05:36
Serbia 01:35–02:17
Ireland 02:40–19:44
Latvia 18:59–05:21
Czechia 01:32–05:29
Azerbaijan 21:02–18:17
Portugal 02:42–20:15
Lithuania 19:04–05:24
Austria 03:26–02:14
Jordan 21:03–18:13
Georgia 21:02–05:58
Estonia 18:54–05:18
Denmark 01:34–05:17
Croatia 03:39–02:22
Uzbekistan 21:05–18:39
Slovakia 06:47–05:33
Bosnia and Herzegovina 02:40–02:20
Netherlands 03:08–19:38
Switzerland 03:15–19:57
Turkmenistan 21:03–18:39
Belgium 03:07–19:42
Nigeria 00:20–18:26
Moldova 19:24–05:43
Armenia 21:02–18:19
Macedonia 02:45–02:22
Albania 03:55–02:28
Slovenia 03:42–02:16
Northern Ireland 02:44–19:38
Israel 16:42–18:13
Montenegro 02:43–02:21
Cyprus 03:05–06:10
Corsica 03:22–20:11
Lebanon 16:50–18:02
Faroe Islands 02:49–04:56
Mallorca 03:06–20:18
Palestinian Territory 16:46–18:07
Luxembourg 03:15–19:41
Shetland 03:01–05:01
Aland Islands 18:57–05:12
Orkney 02:56–05:00
Cameroon 00:18–18:28
Menorca 03:09–20:17
Isle of Man 02:51–19:37
Ibiza 03:04–20:19
Andorra 03:03–20:09
Malta 03:37–20:26
Jersey 02:55–19:51
Guernsey 02:54–19:50
Melilla 02:56–20:23
RAF Akrotiri 03:06–06:10
Mali 03:48–19:27
Gibraltar 02:51–20:19
Vatican 03:32–20:04
Liechtenstein 03:25–02:14
Monaco 03:17–20:04
San Marino 03:33–02:21
Isla de Alborán 02:56–20:22
Islas Chafarinas 02:57–20:24

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

Object Right Ascension Declination Constellation Magnitude Angular Size
Uranus 03h04m10s 16°57'N Aries 5.7 0'03"

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 Sep 2014 18 Aug 2022 Occultations of Uranus 12 Oct 2022 12 Oct 2022
13 Jun 2022 05 Sep 2022 Occultations 30 Sep 2022 12 Oct 2022

The sky on 14 Sep 2022

The sky on 14 September 2022
Sunrise
06:29
Sunset
19:04
Twilight ends
20:38
Twilight begins
04:55

18-day old moon
Waning Gibbous

73%

18 days old

Planets
Rise Culm. Set
Mercury 08:00 13:39 19:18
Venus 05:38 12:12 18:45
Moon 20:52 03:52 11:05
Mars 22:43 06:06 13:30
Jupiter 19:36 01:41 07:45
Saturn 17:41 22:46 03:50
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

04 Nov 2021  –  Uranus at opposition
09 Nov 2022  –  Uranus at opposition
13 Nov 2023  –  Uranus at opposition
16 Nov 2024  –  Uranus at opposition

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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