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

Lunar occultation of Antares

Dominic Ford, Editor
From the Lunar Occultations feed

Objects: Antares

The Moon will pass in front of Antares (Alpha Scorpii), creating a lunar occultation visible from Europe, Africa and Western 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 Cambridge.

The map below shows the visibility of the occultation across the world. Separate contours show where the disappearance of Antares (Alpha Scorpii) 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 Antares (Alpha Scorpii) 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)
Libya 01:47–03:33
Algeria 01:34–02:51
Egypt 02:13–03:51
France 01:22–02:50
Spain 01:24–02:39
Germany 01:31–03:02
Poland 01:41–03:17
Ukraine 01:53–03:38
Turkey 02:04–03:47
Italy 01:32–03:14
Sudan 02:35–03:43
Romania 01:51–03:31
Chad 02:15–03:18
Belarus 01:54–03:25
Great Britain 01:21–02:40
Greece 01:53–03:37
Tunisia 01:39–02:57
Bulgaria 01:56–03:31
Hungary 01:44–03:17
Serbia 01:49–03:21
Czechia 01:38–03:09
Austria 01:35–03:07
Portugal 01:26–02:14
Croatia 01:40–03:13
Morocco 01:38–02:13
Niger 02:15–02:56
Slovakia 01:45–03:16
Ireland 01:20–02:28
Bosnia and Herzegovina 01:44–03:14
Netherlands 01:28–02:49
Switzerland 01:31–02:55
Lithuania 01:51–03:16
Belgium 01:28–02:47
Moldova 02:02–03:30
Macedonia 01:54–03:23
Albania 01:51–03:19
Slovenia 01:40–03:07
Russia 01:48–03:12
Denmark 01:35–02:56
Montenegro 01:49–03:16
Cyprus 02:24–03:48
Corsica 01:35–02:54
Mallorca 01:30–02:38
Luxembourg 01:31–02:48
Israel 02:34–03:51
Menorca 01:31–02:40
Ibiza 01:30–02:32
Andorra 01:28–02:35
Malta 01:47–03:06
Jersey 01:24–02:31
Isle of Man 01:23–02:31
Guernsey 01:23–02:31
Melilla 01:38–02:11
RAF Akrotiri 02:25–03:47
Palestinian Territory 02:34–03:50
Gibraltar 01:39–02:02
Vatican 01:40–03:00
Liechtenstein 01:35–02:53
Monaco 01:32–02:49
San Marino 01:39–03:00
Isla de Alborán 01:36–02:12
Islas Chafarinas 01:37–02:13

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 Antares (Alpha Scorpii) at the moment of the occultation will be as follows:

Object Right Ascension Declination Constellation Magnitude Angular Size
Antares (Alpha Scorpii) 16h29m20s 26°25'S Scorpius 1.1 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
31 Jul 2028 13 Mar 2042 Occultations of Antares (Alpha Scorpii) 07 May 2042 07 May 2042
23 Mar 2042 27 Mar 2042 Occultations 21 Apr 2042 07 May 2042

The sky on 17 May 2024

The sky on 17 May 2024
Sunrise
05:18
Sunset
20:01
Twilight ends
22:01
Twilight begins
03:18

9-day old moon
Waxing Gibbous

73%

9 days old

Planets
Rise Culm. Set
Mercury 04:27 11:05 17:43
Venus 05:09 12:20 19:30
Moon 14:13 20:43 03:01
Mars 03:32 09:50 16:07
Jupiter 05:26 12:43 19:59
Saturn 02:39 08:18 13:57
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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Cambridge

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42.38°N
71.11°W
EDT

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