The Moon will move in entrance of
Saturn,
making a lunar occultation seen from Asia and Africa.

Though the occultation will solely be seen throughout a part of the world – as a result of the Moon is so shut
to the Earth that its place within the sky varies by as a lot as two levels the world over –

a detailed conjunction between the pair
shall be extra extensively seen.

Sadly the occultation won’t be seen from
Los Angeles.

The map under reveals the visibility of the occultation the world over. Separate contours present the place the
disappearance of Saturn is seen (proven in purple), and the place its reappearance is seen
(proven in blue). Stable contours present the place every occasion is prone to be seen by binoculars at an affordable
altitude within the sky. Dotted contours point out the place every occasion happens above the horizon, however will not be seen
as a result of sky being too vivid or the Moon being very near the horizon.

Exterior the contours, the Moon won’t move in entrance of Saturn at any time, or is under
the horizon on the time of the occultation. Nevertheless,
a detailed conjunction between the pair
shall be seen throughout a lot of the world.

The map will be downloaded in

PNG
,

PDF
or

SVG

format. A

KMZ file
,

can be out there, which will be opened in Google Earth to offer a better decision map.

The animation under reveals the trail of the occultation throughout the Earth’s globe. The purple circle
reveals the place the Moon seems in entrance of Saturn.

An entire record of the international locations and territories the place the occultation shall be seen is as follows:

Lunar occultations are solely ever seen from a small fraction of the Earth’s floor.
For the reason that Moon is far nearer to the Earth than different celestial objects, its precise place within the sky
differs relying in your precise location on Earth attributable to its giant parallax. The place of the Moon as
seen from two factors on reverse sides of the Earth varies by as much as two levels, or 4 occasions the diameter
of the complete moon.

Which means if the Moon is
aligned to move in entrance of a selected object for an observer on one aspect of the Earth, it’ll seem as much as
two levels away from that object on the opposite aspect of the Earth.

The place of Saturn in the mean time of the occultation shall be as follows:

The coordinates above are given in J2000.0.

Subsequent/earlier occultations

The sky
on 14 Oct 2024

Supply

The circumstances of this occasion have been computed utilizing the DE430 planetary ephemeris revealed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

This occasion was routinely generated by looking the ephemeris for planetary alignments that are of curiosity to novice astronomers, and the textual content above was generated primarily based on an estimate of your location.

Associated information

Picture credit score

The Moon at the side of Venus and Jupiter, with the Very Giant Telescope within the foreground. Picture © Y. Beletsky, ESO, 2009.