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 San Diego.

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 20:04–21:48
Kazakhstan 20:36–22:28
India 21:16–22:55
China 21:20–22:54
Saudi Arabia 20:01–22:10
Iran 20:23–22:23
Libya 19:39–21:00
Sudan 19:54–21:25
Algeria 19:37–20:38
Egypt 19:48–21:22
Pakistan 20:57–22:38
Turkey 19:52–21:36
Ukraine 19:58–21:21
Afghanistan 20:56–22:29
Ethiopia 20:18–21:36
Turkmenistan 20:42–22:17
Uzbekistan 20:49–22:22
Iraq 20:09–21:49
Poland 19:54–21:03
Yemen 20:22–22:04
Chad 19:49–20:44
Italy 19:39–20:53
Belarus 20:04–21:10
Romania 19:53–21:08
Somalia 20:34–21:55
Oman 20:40–22:19
Kyrgyzstan 21:13–22:29
Syria 20:04–21:32
Germany 19:45–20:55
Greece 19:46–21:07
Tunisia 19:38–20:41
Tajikistan 21:10–22:30
Nepal 21:35–22:53
France 19:38–20:47
Bulgaria 19:51–21:07
Bangladesh 21:51–22:55
Hungary 19:50–21:01
Serbia 19:49–21:00
Eritrea 20:13–21:33
Niger 19:51–20:26
Czechia 19:50–20:57
Azerbaijan 20:25–21:43
Austria 19:45–20:55
Jordan 20:01–21:28
Georgia 20:19–21:36
Lithuania 20:07–21:05
Croatia 19:46–20:56
United Arab Emirates 20:36–22:10
Myanmar 22:02–22:55
Slovakia 19:52–21:01
Bosnia and Herzegovina 19:47–20:56
Switzerland 19:43–20:48
Moldova 20:02–21:08
Bhutan 21:50–22:54
Armenia 20:23–21:38
Macedonia 19:48–21:00
Albania 19:47–20:57
Slovenia 19:46–20:54
Spain 19:37–20:38
Latvia 20:12–21:06
Israel 20:00–21:21
Djibouti 20:30–21:33
Morocco 19:39–20:21
Montenegro 19:47–20:56
Kuwait 20:24–21:50
Qatar 20:33–22:01
Cyprus 19:59–21:18
Corsica 19:40–20:45
Lebanon 20:03–21:22
Mallorca 19:37–20:35
Palestinian Territory 20:01–21:20
Menorca 19:38–20:36
Bahrain 20:32–21:57
Ibiza 19:37–20:32
Malta 19:40–20:45
RAF Akrotiri 19:59–21:17
Vatican 19:42–20:47
Liechtenstein 19:45–20:48
Monaco 19:41–20:43
San Marino 19:44–20:48

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
05:45
Sunset
19:41
Twilight ends
21:16
Twilight begins
04:10

15-day old moon
Waning Gibbous

98%

15 days old

Planets
Rise Culm. Set
Mercury 04:42 11:08 17:34
Venus 03:58 10:14 16:30
Moon 19:12 00:31 05:47
Mars 05:53 12:50 19:48
Jupiter 19:09 00:27 05:44
Saturn 05:59 12:49 19:40
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.

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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San Diego

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32.72°N
117.16°W
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