Wednesday, May 12, 2010

It is shining in the West!

No! This is not an election advertisement! It is an advertisement for the god of good fortune Sukra or the goddess of love Venus (If you believe in Gods!!!!). Either way you should be interested. Venus has been shining and shining for the past few months imploring you to look at her/him! You can not step out after sunset and NOT see it in the western sky. There is something more to Venus than just being bright these days. What’s that? Let’s find out.

Planet Venus has dared to let the sun go ahead and has venturing further and further away in the sky from the sun and finally it will stop for a well earned rest on August 20th, well that’s another story to tell about the phenomenon called eastern elongation. But Venus seems to be enjoying this independence from the sun right now. It glows brightest now!

After few days its all set to date Moon. Looks like an interesting event, Venus dating a crescent moon. Not even dating, trying to hide behind moon, away from the glaring lights and cameras of news channels. But even these probing eyes of reporters and sting operations would not stop it meeting Moon on 16th afternoon. This event in astronomy is called occultation. Remember, sun hiding behind the moon? You are right, during solar eclipse it does that, technically solar eclipse is an occultation. An occultation is an event that occurs when one object is hidden by another object that passes between it and the observer. Last time it happened with venus for India was on June 17 2007. This event is not rare one but it sure is an event to watch as bright Venus slips behind the moon.


Image taken by SPACE members just before Venus went behind moon in early hours of Nov. 10, 2004

Now why this event occurs? As we all know that Moon goes around the Earth and during it journey it comes in front of rest of the celestial bodies. Sun, planets, stars to name a few. As a result we have all sorts of occultations. As moon moves quite fast in the skies, it comes back to the same phase in about 29.5 days, it stands a good chance to occult the planets and stars. A planet being hidden by moon is not a common event as there are only few bright naked eye planets, even then it usually hides Venus behind at least once in a year.

Timings for Delhi
16 May, 2010
Disappearance                         15 50 38 IST
Reappearance                          17 18 31 IST

For timings in rest of the major cities in delhi, please visit SPACE occultation blog at http://occultationindia.blogspot.com

It is a daytime event. Last time its happened during night/eve but next two events are daytime and one has to wait till 2036 to see this event in night.

Next three events
June 30, 2011              Daytime event
Feb 26, 2014               Daytime event
Sep 16, 2036               NightTime event


How to see the event?
As the event is happening in the daytime, one can not see the venus going behind or coming from behind the moon but it will be site worth to watch once the sun has set and Moon-Venus pair shining in the western skies.

Event for Amateur Astronomers
Amateur Astronomers can try out photographing the event as well seeing the venus in broad daylight with help of data available for the venus and Moon, but its not going to be easy.

For complete data about timings read THIS POST


May 16th Venus occultation by Moon in daytime



The map shows the area over which the event can be seen.
Continuous thick white line indicates night-time region. Red line indicates twilight region. Dotted white line shows daylight region


On Sunday, May 16, 2010, the Moon will come directly between Venus and the Earth. The event would be visible from India during the day time.

Last time it happened for observers in india on June 18, 2007 and next will be in June 30, 2011

Venus is the brightest planet visible from the Earth and can be seen with the naked eyes in the board day light, if one knows were to look for it. This event provides a wonderful opportunity to look for Venus even when the sun is well above the horizon. 

For India the event begins after about 3:30 p.m. Indian time and ends after 5 p.m. The start and end times of the event are given in the table below.  At the start of the event the Moon and Venus will be well above the horizon.  The Moon itself will be about 30 degrees east of the Sun. It will not be very difficult to spot the Moon if the sky is clear and blue. All one needs to do is to face west and look about 30 degrees above the sun.. Needless to say that one should not look at the sun directly.

Venus will be a bit east of the Moon. With the reference of the Moon, it would be easier to spot the planet with the naked eyes. A pair of binoculars, however, would be most useful. But if you are using a binoculars or telescope be very sure not to point the instrument in the direction of the sun. It is quite likely that one may not be able to see the dark limb of the Moon.

Occultation from Delhi

Disappearence


Reappearence





Occultation Predictions 
(Courtsey Arvind Paranjpai, IUCAA)
Altitude of the Moon at the time of the event is given in degrees.
Please note that the predictions are accurate to within a second or two.
The times are based on the Latitude and Longitudes of various station available.
One is advised to start monitoring the event well ahead of the predicted time.
For various cities in India
[times given are in Indian Standard Time (IST).]


Disappearance
I. S. T.                  Moon  

Location h m s Alt



Agra 15 53 41 69

Ahmadabad 15 44 29 76

Amrawati 16 00 42 67

Amritsar 15 43 42 74

BANGALORE 16 20 17 60



Chennai 16 23 44 57

DehraDun 15 52 16 69

Gorakhpur 16 07 12 62

Hyderabad 16 08 45 64

Guntur 16 15 33 60



Hyderabad 16 09 11 64

Trivandram 16 40 15 54

Indore 15 53 15 71

Bhubneshwar 16 18 52 56

Jaipur 15 48 9 73



Jodhpur 15 41 22 77

KANDLA 15 37 51 80

Kochi 16 31 27 57

Kolkata 16 21 17 53

Lucknow 16 01 14 65



MT. ABU 15 42 39 77

Mumbai 15 53 24 73

NAINI Tal 15 56 14 67

Nanded 16 03 7 67

NEW DELHI 15 50 38 71



Pune 15 56 52 71

Rajkot 15 40 58 78

Srinigar 15 44 13 72

Udaipur 15 45 14 75

Vijayadurg 16 01 27 69



Reappearnce  
IST       Moon

Location h m s Alt



Agra 17 22 21 50

Ahmadabad 17 19 34 55

Amrawati 17 30 50 47

Amritsar 17 09 13 56

BANGALORE 17 32 39 44



Chennai 17 38 51 40

Dehra Dun 17 15 49 51

Gorakhpur 17 28 46 44

Hyderabad 17 34 26 45

Guntur 17 38 39 41



Hyderabad 17 34 37 44

Trivandram 17 22 19 45

Indore 17 25 51 50

Bhubneshwar 17 42 0 37

Jaipur 17 19 55 52

Jodhpur 17 16 27 55

KANDLA 17 14 15 58

Kochi 17 24 37 46

Kolkata 17 40 26 36

Lucknow 17 26 17 46



MT. ABU 17 18 7 55

Mumbai 17 22 15 53

NAINI Tal 17 19 29 49

Nanded 17 31 38 47

NEW DELHI 17 18 31 51



Pune 17 24 48 51

Rajkot 17 16 18 57

Srinigar 17 02 43 57

Udaipur 17 19 55 54

Vijayadurg 17 23 41 51