SPOTTING THE LANDING SITE OF CHANDRAYAAN 2

As the landing date for the Chandrayaan 2 approaches which is on 7th September  it is curious on where it is going to land. Amateur Astronomers who keep observing the celestial objects are more curious and would love to know the position of landing so that they can spot the landing area on the moon with their telescopes. Most of the craters are visible with small telescopes and there are lot of maps that are available online to spot the craters.

About the craters Manzinus C and Simpelius N

ISRO sources say that the landing site will be between craters Manzinus C and Simpelius N on the high lands between them. As amateurs will know the letters next to the crater names says that these are smaller craters around the big crater. Here Manzinus is a big crater with a diameter close to 100 km diameter and smaller craters near its vicinity are given capital letters for example Manzinus crater has Manzinus C, Manzinus D, Manzinus G, Manzinus E etc,. This is same with all craters, so Simpelius N is a small crater close to Simpelius crater which is close to 70km in diameter.

Locating the Landing site of Chandrayaan 2

To find the crater its good to start with the best known bright crater on the south side of the moon, the Tycho crater. After finding Tycho, the next hop is to near by crater Magnius, this is also easy to find because of the size of the crater, the Magnius crater is close to 160km in diameter. Next hop is to Crater Zach which is also easy to find due its appearance. Continuing in the same line to almost limb of the moon the landing sites of Chandarayaan 2 can be found, the craters Manzinus C and Simpelius N. Crater Manzinus C is easy to find because of the diameter it has, close to 20km, but the Simpelius N is little challenging at 8km diameter.

Location of Chandrayaan 2 Landing Site

Best time to Spot the Landing site of Chandrayaan 2

To attempt to spot the craters Sun has to light it up, as I am writing this article on 21st of August the craters are in the dark, the next chance will come on 6th September, when moon is half lit and the craters will be easy to spot until 17th of September. For future reference the craters are best seen from half moon after new moon to 3 days after full moon. Happy Spotting.

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Omicron Leonis occultation

On 20th, Thursday 2010, Constellation Leo will be good area to observe.

Planet Mars is in the constellation of Leo and on 20th, the planet is 6 degrees to the north of the Moon.

Moon will occult the 3.5 magnitude star omicron leonis, Subra, on 20th May 2010. The Moon will be at half phase and Subra is occulted from dark side of the Moon.

Here is a list of timings of occultation for few places in India.

Location	Disappears	Reappears
IST = UT + 5:30	UT	UT
Agra	14h 36m 16s	15h 29m 49s
Amritsar	14h 26m 56s	15h 15m 40s
Bangaluru	14h 49m 56s	16h 3m 0s
Hyderabad	14h 45m 13s	15h 55m 9s
Jaipur	14h 30m 43s	15h 30m 12s
Kolkata	15h 3m 1s	15h 43m 30s
Lucknow	14h 44m 8s	15h 30m 47s
New Delhi	14h 33m 45s	15h 25m 13s
Srinagar	14h 27m 27s	15h 6m 41s
Location	Disappears	Reappears

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Moon occults Venus

This Sunday 16th May, 2010 the two day old Moon will occult the plant Venus which is in the gibbous phase in the constellation of Taurus.

When an celestial object passes between the line of sight of an observer and another celestial object, obstructing the view is called Occultation. In this case, Moon will pass between Venus and earth obstructing the view of the Venus so we can say Moon will occult Venus.

Occultation details:(all times are in UT, IST = UT +5.5hrs)

Bangalore(UT)

Venus Disappears behind Moon: 10:50

Venus Reappears: 12:02

It will be difficult to spot Venus and Moon as they will be 30 degrees east of the Sun at 10:50 UT. Telescopes with setting circles or built in GOTO is advisable for viwing and photographing the event.

Venus coordinates for 16th May:

Right Ascension: 5h 40m 57.19s

Declination: +24° 47' 53.5"

Be very careful while scanning the sky for the planet Venus. Always take care not to point the telescope towards the Sun.

Venus angular diameter is 12 arc seconds and has a magnitude of -4.

Sun Position:

The Sun will be at an altitude of 31.5 degrees from the western horizon at the start of the occultation.

Sun will be at an altitude of 14 degrees above the western horizon at the end of the occultaton.

Sun set: 18:38 IST

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Occlutation of delta Geminorum

Image generated from Cartes du Ciel

Tonight, 24.03.2010, the Moon will occult delta Geminorum a 3.5 magnitude star. The Occultation is visible from most parts of India. kanyakumari will miss the occulataiton. The times and altitude of the Moon is given for Bangalore co ordinates.

Occultation Details:

Delta Geminorum disappears at 8:02pm IST.

The star will be occulted from dark side of the Moon.

Star will re appears at 9:07pm IST.

Altitude of the Moon will be 78 degrees from the western horizon and will be 65 degrees from the western horizon at the end of the occultation.

It is better to start observing few minutes early before the mentioned start time. It is easy to idenify the constellation, Moon is in the constellation Gemini today, locate the Moon and match to the star map attached.

Happy observing and please do share your observations.

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