Daytime Occultation of Moon and Saturn August 4th

Daytime occultation, second of this year will be of Moon Occulting Saturn. Earlier this year in February we saw Moon occulting Venus in the daytime, both Venus and Moon were easily visible because of their brightness.  

 

On August 4^th, we will see Moon occulting Saturn in the daytime, but we will need telescope to see Saturn as the surrounding sky will be very bright.

Stellarium generated image.

 

The occultation will begin 2pm IST as seen from Bangalore, its always a good practice to start observing as early as possible. Saturn will disappear from dark side of the moon and emerge from the sunlit side at 2:40pm.

Do not try to locate Saturn with the telescope if you are new to finding planets during daytime. As bright Sun will be very close, accidental viewing of Sun through the telescope will be disastrous to the eye.

Here are the times and positions of the Planet for those who have setting circles

August 4th Occultation.

Time	Right Ascension	Declination	Altitude	Azimuth
13:45	15:00:00	-14:44:27	14:36	109:18
14:00 Start	15:00:00	-14:44:27	18:00	110:27
14:40 End	15:00:00	-14:44:27	27:15	114:20
	Deg:Mins:Secs	Deg:Mins:Secs	Deg:Mins:Secs	Deg:Mins:Secs

Its a matter of luck to have clear skies in this monsoon season, but its always better to be prepared and hope for the best. 

Clear Skies 

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Occultation Demonstration setup at ABAA

At ABAA, we try to make concepts of astronomy simple so that everyone can visualise and understand. This setup I made at ABAA using materials that we can find easily and we can build this at very low cost and fast. The setup is to show occultation concept, consists of a motor, a light source that acts as a star and a dick attached to motor to show an object coming in front of the star, Occulting the star.

Moon Occulting Venus 

Occultation is an astronomical event when one astronomical object comes between observer and a distant object. For example, moon in its journey in the night sky comes in between background stars and us, this we call moon is occulting stars.

I made the video with external lights on and off, to show the setup working. With lights on, we can see the disk coming in front of the light source and Occulting the Star and with lights turned off we can simulate night sky and we can measure star light disappearing and re appearing. Using different sizes of disc, we can show that occultation helps in determining the size and shape of an object using the time of appearance and disappearance to the star.  

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Daytime Venus Occultation

Daytime skies are little boring to people with only one star to observe. Occasionally we get treats like solar eclipse and transits, amazing celestial daytime events that make the long wait worthwhile.  On 15^th February 2013, a meteor entered earth atmosphere and as it burnt up, it lit up the skies of Chelyabinsk, Russia. Apart from these rare events, the actions in the skies hide behind the glare of the sun during the day.

Lunar occultation of stars and planets are events normally associated with night sky. Moon occults stars and planets during daytime too but we cannot see these events because, the bright Sun outshines everything in the sky. However, every rule has an exception; we see Moon during daytime without any difficulty, and with practice, we can also spot Venus with naked eye and it is an easy target for telescope in the daytime.

This February 26^th there is an event involving Moon and Venus during daytime(Readers of AKASHA will already know this from JAN-FEB issue). Moon will occult Venus on this day. Occultation of planets by Moon is rare event, for example from Bangalore the next Occultation of Venus by Moon will be in 2023 March 24^th.

We have to take Extreme precaution when planning to observe the event, equipment  always has be pointed away from the Sun. Even very small duration exposure to Sun’s rays through telescope or binocular can damage the eyes permanently.

The brightness of both Moon and Venus makes it good challenge for daytime occultation observation with Moon at crescent phase and Venus close to half phase at -4.5 magnitude, will be a great sight through the eyepiece.

Venus will disappear from the lit part of the crescent Moon and reappear from the dark part of Moon. Venus will be close to 15 minutes of arc from the brighter edge of the moon at 10:30am IST, both should fit in to the same field of view in a 6-inch telescope.

 

Here are the times and altitude of Moon for February 26^th Occultation:

Venus will disappear at 11:05am IST and at this time the altitude of Moon will be 53 degrees.  Venus will reappear from the darker side of the Moon at 12:29pm IST. The altitude of Moon at the reappearance of Venus will be 38 degrees.

Hope for clear skies.

 

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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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Occultation of Europa by Io

This Sunday the 6th of December, there is a very good reason for taking your telescopes out. Train your telescopes to the planet Jupiter at 8:30pm IST and you will notice that Io and Europa are very close to each other. Observe for couple of minutes more and you can notice that they are getting closer and closer. Yes, your guess is right, there will be an occultation of the Galilean moons Io and Europa. Io will occult Europa this evening, starting at 8:49pm IST. The event can be seen from all parts of India, the timings are for Bangalore co ordinates. Its better to start observing the moons from 8:45pm IST and time the event. The event will be for 5 minutes but better and accurate timing is a good exercise.

Io will be getting closer to Jupiter in its orbit and Europa is moving away from Jupiter.

Here are images that will help you in locating the planet Jupiter and one to help identifying the moons. Click in image for larger version.

Images generated from Cartes du ciel

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