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