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

Lunar occultation of Venus

Dominic Ford, Editor
From the Lunar Occultations feed

Objects: Venus

The Moon will pass in front of Venus, creating a lunar occultation visible from Africa, Europe, western Russia, Canada, Greenland 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 Venus 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 Venus 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 Venus.

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

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

Object Right Ascension Declination Constellation Magnitude Angular Size
Venus 10h08m10s 12°28'N Leo -3.9 0'11"

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
07 Apr 2024 05 Sep 2024 Occultations of Venus 17 Jun 2026 17 Jun 2026
14 Sep 2025 14 Sep 2025 Occultations 27 Sep 2025 03 Feb 2026

The sky on 19 Sep 2025

The sky on 19 September 2025
Sunrise
06:34
Sunset
18:55
Twilight ends
20:28
Twilight begins
05:01

27-day old moon
Waning Crescent

3%

27 days old

Planets
Rise Culm. Set
Mercury 07:02 13:06 19:10
Venus 04:19 11:06 17:54
Moon 04:08 11:12 18:04
Mars 09:15 14:40 20:06
Jupiter 01:01 08:27 15:52
Saturn 19:04 00:57 06:49
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

01 Aug 2025  –  Venus at highest altitude in morning sky
05 Jun 2026  –  Venus at highest altitude in evening sky
14 Aug 2026  –  Venus at greatest elongation east
11 Dec 2026  –  Venus at highest altitude in morning sky

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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41.14°N
73.26°W
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