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

Lunar occultation of Jupiter

Dominic Ford, Editor
From the Lunar Occultations feed

Objects: Jupiter

The Moon will pass in front of Jupiter, creating a lunar occultation visible from Africa, Asia, South America, 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 Cambridge.

The map below shows the visibility of the occultation across the world. Separate contours show where the disappearance of Jupiter 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 Jupiter 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 Jupiter.

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)
Brazil 05:28–06:45
Algeria 07:04–09:04
Libya 07:40–09:24
Saudi Arabia 08:27–09:36
Iran 08:31–09:38
Russia 08:27–09:31
Mali 06:34–08:43
Niger 07:10–09:05
Mauritania 06:29–08:32
Egypt 08:11–09:31
Turkey 08:14–09:34
Kazakhstan 08:35–09:32
Ukraine 08:22–09:20
Venezuela 05:30–06:32
Chad 07:53–09:08
Sudan 08:20–09:23
Spain 07:31–08:40
Iraq 08:29–09:37
Morocco 06:59–08:42
Turkmenistan 08:36–09:36
Italy 07:53–09:11
Romania 08:15–09:17
Ivory Coast 06:43–08:05
Western Sahara 06:36–08:24
Nigeria 07:26–08:29
Burkina Faso 06:52–08:26
France 07:57–08:45
Guinea 06:24–08:04
Syria 08:25–09:34
Guyana 05:30–06:33
Ghana 07:01–08:12
Senegal 06:22–08:03
Greece 08:07–09:25
Uzbekistan 08:37–09:32
Tunisia 07:43–09:07
Suriname 05:30–06:36
Bulgaria 08:13–09:19
Hungary 08:15–09:02
Serbia 08:11–09:13
Azerbaijan 08:32–09:34
Austria 08:15–08:52
Jordan 08:25–09:34
Liberia 06:33–07:51
Georgia 08:29–09:31
Portugal 07:32–08:20
Croatia 08:08–09:06
Benin 07:16–08:20
United Arab Emirates 08:50–09:34
French Guiana 05:31–06:37
Sierra Leone 06:27–07:54
Slovakia 08:21–08:57
Oman 08:49–09:35
Poland 08:26–08:54
Bosnia and Herzegovina 08:09–09:07
Colombia 05:39–06:27
Switzerland 08:11–08:41
Togo 07:12–08:13
Moldova 08:22–09:13
Guinea-Bissau 06:22–07:55
Czechia 08:24–08:46
Bolivia 05:35–06:09
Armenia 08:31–09:33
Macedonia 08:10–09:15
Albania 08:08–09:14
Germany 08:18–08:44
Slovenia 08:11–08:56
Israel 08:25–09:32
Montenegro 08:09–09:10
Afghanistan 08:41–09:33
Belarus 08:37–08:54
Kuwait 08:39–09:36
Qatar 08:47–09:34
The Canary Islands 06:53–08:11
Cyprus 08:21–09:31
Corsica 07:58–08:54
Gambia 06:23–07:57
Lebanon 08:25–09:32
Cape Verde 06:12–07:40
Trinidad and Tobago 05:41–06:31
Mallorca 07:47–08:45
Palestinian Territory 08:25–09:32
Guadeloupe 05:57–06:27
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 05:47–06:30
Menorca 07:50–08:47
Bahrain 08:46–09:34
Barbados 05:48–06:31
Martinique 05:52–06:29
Saint Kitts and Nevis 06:02–06:23
Saint Lucia 05:50–06:30
Ibiza 07:45–08:43
Andorra 07:56–08:34
Antigua and Barbuda 06:02–06:24
Dominica 05:54–06:28
Malta 07:56–09:10
Anguilla 06:10–06:17
U.S. Virgin Islands 06:07–06:18
Bonaire, Saint Eustatius and Saba 05:46–06:26
Grenada 05:46–06:30
Melilla 07:31–08:36
RAF Akrotiri 08:21–09:30
Gibraltar 07:31–08:28
Vatican 08:03–08:59
Liechtenstein 08:19–08:34
Monaco 08:03–08:44
Montserrat 06:01–06:24
Curacao 05:46–06:26
Sint Maarten 06:08–06:19
Puerto Rico 06:11–06:14
Saint Barthelemy 06:08–06:19
Saint Martin 06:10–06:17
San Marino 08:07–08:54
Madeira 07:14–07:57
The Savage Islands 07:03–08:03
Isla de Alborán 07:33–08:35
Islas Chafarinas 07:32–08:37

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

Object Right Ascension Declination Constellation Magnitude Angular Size
Jupiter 00h35m50s 2°33'N Cetus -2.3 0'37"

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
14 May 2034 14 May 2034 Occultations of Jupiter 08 Jul 2034 28 Sep 2034
14 May 2034 15 May 2034 Occultations 08 Jul 2034 05 Sep 2034

The sky on 11 Jun 2034

The sky on 11 June 2034
Sunrise
05:03
Sunset
20:20
Twilight ends
22:34
Twilight begins
02:50

24-day old moon
Waning Crescent

28%

24 days old

Planets
Rise Culm. Set
Mercury 05:36 13:00 20:24
Venus 07:52 15:25 22:58
Moon 01:47 08:10 14:42
Mars 06:36 14:16 21:55
Jupiter 01:48 08:00 14:13
Saturn 07:20 14:49 22:19
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

23 Oct 2033  –  Jupiter ends retrograde motion
02 Aug 2034  –  Jupiter enters retrograde motion
01 Oct 2034  –  Jupiter at opposition
28 Nov 2034  –  Jupiter ends retrograde motion

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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42.38°N
71.11°W
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