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 Africa, Europe 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 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)
Algeria 21:22–23:53
Sudan 22:53–00:33
Libya 22:07–00:20
Saudi Arabia 23:04–00:34
Chad 22:27–00:23
Mali 21:29–23:43
Niger 21:58–00:09
Mauritania 21:18–23:14
Egypt 22:45–00:28
Nigeria 22:10–00:10
Turkey 22:43–00:10
Ethiopia 23:28–00:33
France 21:34–23:05
Spain 21:21–23:02
Central African Republic 22:55–00:23
Ukraine 22:34–23:45
Germany 22:00–23:06
Democratic Republic of the Congo 23:12–00:19
Morocco 21:15–23:09
Cameroon 22:38–00:11
Poland 22:18–23:15
Italy 21:59–23:34
Romania 22:31–23:38
Iraq 23:05–00:21
Ivory Coast 21:59–23:21
Western Sahara 21:15–22:58
Burkina Faso 21:54–23:40
Yemen 23:32–00:34
Ghana 22:03–23:33
Guinea 21:50–22:59
Syria 23:00–00:15
Senegal 21:34–22:48
Greece 22:31–23:57
Tunisia 22:01–23:37
Bulgaria 22:35–23:42
Republic of the Congo 23:11–00:08
Hungary 22:23–23:20
Serbia 22:28–23:32
Eritrea 23:23–00:33
Czechia 22:14–23:09
Portugal 21:19–22:50
Austria 22:07–23:11
Benin 22:09–23:44
Jordan 23:02–00:20
Gabon 23:05–23:56
Croatia 22:16–23:24
Somalia 23:46–00:29
Slovakia 22:24–23:16
Belarus 22:34–23:17
Bosnia and Herzegovina 22:22–23:25
Great Britain 21:32–22:45
Switzerland 21:59–23:04
Netherlands 21:54–22:51
Togo 22:07–23:37
Belgium 21:52–22:52
Moldova 22:41–23:33
Macedonia 22:32–23:36
Albania 22:30–23:35
Guinea-Bissau 21:50–22:36
Sierra Leone 22:03–22:42
Slovenia 22:16–23:13
Equatorial Guinea 22:51–23:51
Israel 23:01–00:19
Liberia 22:12–22:49
Djibouti 23:42–00:31
Montenegro 22:27–23:29
The Canary Islands 21:08–22:43
Cyprus 22:56–00:07
Corsica 22:04–23:13
Uganda 23:51–00:13
Gambia 21:46–22:37
Lebanon 23:01–00:12
Mallorca 21:47–23:06
Palestinian Territory 23:01–00:15
Kenya 23:57–00:13
Luxembourg 21:59–22:53
Menorca 21:50–23:07
Ibiza 21:44–23:04
Andorra 21:45–22:58
Malta 22:19–23:34
Sao Tome and Principe 23:02–23:38
Jersey 21:40–22:43
Guernsey 21:39–22:43
Melilla 21:32–23:01
RAF Akrotiri 22:57–00:07
Gibraltar 21:27–22:55
Vatican 22:13–23:16
Liechtenstein 22:07–23:01
Monaco 22:00–23:04
San Marino 22:13–23:12
Madeira 21:07–22:34
The Savage Islands 21:09–22:37
Isla de Alborán 21:32–23:00
Islas Chafarinas 21:33–23:02

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
29 Apr 2078 26 May 2078 Occultations of Delta Scorpii (Dschubba) 20 Jul 2078 20 Jul 2078
10 May 2078 29 May 2078 Occultations 26 Jun 2078 20 Jul 2078

The sky on 3 Jul 2024

The sky on 3 July 2024
Sunrise
05:09
Sunset
20:24
Twilight ends
22:37
Twilight begins
02:56

27-day old moon
Waning Crescent

5%

27 days old

Planets
Rise Culm. Set
Mercury 06:44 14:12 21:39
Venus 05:47 13:21 20:56
Moon 02:34 10:37 18:50
Mars 01:52 08:57 16:02
Jupiter 02:57 10:23 17:48
Saturn 23:39 05:19 11:00
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
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