Thu, 12 Jul 2012

Moon hides Jupiter on Sunday morning

The graze track of Jupiter across the UK. Click to enlarge

A rare lunar occultation of Jupiter takes place this coming Sunday morning, 15 July, starting at about 2.50 am BST – so you’ll have to stay up on Saturday night! The Moon will be low down in the east north east, so you will need a good low horizon in that direction, as well, of course as good weather!

The event will only be seen south of a line running roughly from South Wales to Lincolnshire. For many people Jupiter will just graze the lunar limb, giving a very interesting appearance, while farther south of a line between Dorset and Suffolk Jupiter will be fully hidden for a time. The map at right shows these two lines.

Jupiter’s satellites will also take part in the event, and each one has its own graze track across the UK, south of which it will be completely hidden.

As seen from Greenwich, the event starts at 01.51 UT (2.52 am BST) with Europa, followed by Io and then Jupiter itself at 01.56 UT. Other timings from Greenwich are shown in the table below. Timings for other locations will be just a minute or two different from these.

The event will be worth watching from the whole of the UK, though north of the line Jupiter will not be hidden by the Moon at all. The simulations shown here are from the free occultation software LOW, which will give you precise predictions for your own location should you need them, and the ground tracks from Occult 4.

Information provided by Mell Jeffery, Occultation Section Director

Graze line for Io. Click to enlarge	Graze line for Europa. Click to enlarge
Graze line for Ganymede. Click to enlarge	Graze line for Callisto. Click to enlarge
Simulation of disappearance from Greenwich	Simulation of reappearance from Greenwich
Simulation of mid-event from Cardiff Click any image to enlarge

Added by: Robin Scagell