Images from Occultation of Theta Ophuchi on 12th oct 2010 taken by SPACE team

Moon map for the disappearance and Reappearance of the Theta Ophichui as seen from Delhi

disappearance

Reappearance

Lunar Occultations for October for delhi

Occultation prediction for DELHI India

        Time   P   Star  Sp  Mag  Mag    % Elon Sun  Moon   CA   PA

  m  d  h  m  s      No  D     v    r V  ill     Alt Alt Az   o    o

Oct  2 19 44  6 r    1236 SG0  5.1        31-  68      1  71  80N 292

Oct  2 20 25 18 R    1241SA0  6.5  6.3   31-  67      9  75  53N 319

Oct 12 12 54 14 D    2500cB2  3.3  3.4v  27+  62  -7 29 212  56N  60

Oct 12 12 56 31 D    2499 K3  6.4  5.6   27+  62  -8 28 213  28N  33

Oct 12 14 10  7 R    2500cB2  3.3  3.4v  27+  63     18 227 -86N 278

Oct 14 13 22 54 D    2806 A0  7.0  6.9   46+  86     38 194  82S  91

Oct 16 18  9 39 M    3066cA9  6.0  5.8e  67+ 110     18 242  16S 149

Oct 17 13 48 12 D    3169 K0  6.1  5.5   75+ 119     48 158  62N  45

Oct 17 19 49  3 d    3187 M3  6.0  5.2v  76+ 121      9 254  35N  18

Oct 20 18 31 31 d    3524cF0  6.9  6.7   95+ 153     57 230  60S 107

Oct 21 17 51 46 D      89cF5  6.5  6.2   98+ 164     70 194  52S 122

Oct 25 14 22 31 r     582 F2  5.6  5.4   93- 150      8  69  47S 212

Oct 25 16 16  9 r     594MB9  6.9  6.9   93- 149     32  79  15N 330

Oct 26  0 56 49 r     624 K0  6.8  6.2   92- 146  -1 35 280  31N 316

Oct 26 16 38  6 R     742SG8  5.8  5.2   87- 137     25  75  86N 267

Oct 26 22 53 46 R     767SB2  5.5        85- 135     73 260  77N 277 

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 20^th, 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 16^th 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