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 Asia, Africa, Europe and western Russia. 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)
Russia 21:03–12:21
Kazakhstan 21:04–03:31
India 21:17–02:45
China 21:15–12:09
Saudi Arabia 21:05–18:45
Iran 21:02–18:46
Libya 00:21–18:30
Sudan 00:17–18:59
Algeria 02:52–19:35
Egypt 00:26–18:31
Pakistan 21:14–18:55
Turkey 21:02–18:25
Ukraine 21:05–05:48
Afghanistan 21:08–18:47
Ethiopia 00:21–19:02
Turkmenistan 21:03–18:39
Uzbekistan 21:05–18:39
Iraq 21:02–18:08
Poland 19:11–05:32
Yemen 00:43–18:51
Chad 00:17–18:41
Italy 03:16–20:23
Belarus 19:01–05:31
Romania 19:26–05:47
Somalia 00:28–19:05
Oman 21:28–18:41
Kyrgyzstan 21:12–18:38
Syria 21:02–18:04
Germany 03:16–19:46
Greece 03:54–02:42
Tunisia 03:21–19:12
Tajikistan 21:10–18:42
Nepal 21:28–18:57
France 02:49–20:09
Bulgaria 06:53–05:50
Bangladesh 21:42–18:59
Hungary 06:47–05:36
Serbia 01:35–02:17
Eritrea 00:29–18:51
Niger 03:29–18:23
Czechia 01:32–05:29
Azerbaijan 21:02–18:17
Austria 03:26–02:14
Jordan 21:03–18:13
Georgia 21:02–05:58
Lithuania 19:04–05:24
Croatia 03:39–02:22
United Arab Emirates 16:50–18:24
Myanmar 21:49–02:43
Slovakia 06:47–05:33
Bosnia and Herzegovina 02:40–02:20
Switzerland 03:15–19:57
Moldova 19:24–05:43
Bhutan 21:40–18:56
Armenia 21:02–18:19
Macedonia 02:45–02:22
Albania 03:55–02:28
Slovenia 03:42–02:16
Spain 02:41–20:21
Latvia 18:59–05:21
Israel 16:42–18:13
Djibouti 00:34–18:53
Morocco 02:47–03:02
Montenegro 02:43–02:21
Kuwait 21:10–18:07
Qatar 16:49–18:20
Cyprus 03:05–06:10
Corsica 03:22–20:11
Lebanon 16:50–18:02
Mallorca 03:06–20:18
Palestinian Territory 16:46–18:07
Menorca 03:09–20:17
Bahrain 21:27–18:15
Ibiza 03:04–20:19
Malta 03:37–20:26
RAF Akrotiri 03:06–06:10
Vatican 03:32–20:04
Liechtenstein 03:25–02:14
Monaco 03:17–20:04
San Marino 03:33–02:21

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
20 Apr 2030 20 Apr 2030 Occultations of Delta Scorpii (Dschubba) 14 Jun 2030 14 Jun 2030
20 Apr 2030 05 May 2030 Occultations 14 Jun 2030 14 Jun 2030

The sky on 17 May 2030

The sky on 17 May 2030
Sunrise
05:30
Sunset
20:05
Twilight ends
22:01
Twilight begins
03:35

15-day old moon
Waning Gibbous

98%

15 days old

Planets
Rise Culm. Set
Mercury 04:38 11:13 17:47
Venus 03:57 10:18 16:39
Moon 19:28 00:28 05:23
Mars 05:38 12:55 20:12
Jupiter 19:31 00:32 05:33
Saturn 05:46 12:54 20:03
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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Fairfield

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41.14°N
73.26°W
EDT

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