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, western Russia, Africa and Asia.

Unfortunately the occultation will not be visible from San Diego, though a close conjunction between the pair will be more widely visible.

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 of the contours, the Moon does 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 may be visible.

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

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
21 Feb 2015 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
18:56
Twilight ends
20:19
Twilight begins
05:05

18-day old moon
Waning Gibbous

73%

18 days old

Planets
Rise Culm. Set
Mercury 07:48 13:34 19:19
Venus 05:43 12:07 18:32
Moon 21:04 03:54 10:52
Mars 23:01 06:02 13:03
Jupiter 19:32 01:36 07:40
Saturn 17:21 22:41 04:00
All times shown in PDT.

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.

Share

Follow

San Diego

Latitude:
Longitude:
Timezone:

32.72°N
117.16°W
PDT

Color scheme