Lunar Occultation of Venus on 16 May 10

The Moon eclipses Venus on 16th May 10	Indian Day time occultation of Venus by the Moon

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. 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. The map below 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 is to show daylight region 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.	However, it would be a magnificent sight closer to the sunset with Venus shining brilliantly below the crescent Moon. DrAryeh E Shimron from Jerusalem had sent a picture of the the similar event that took place on 18th June 2007. I have digitally modified that image to simulate how Venus and the Moon would look soon after the sunset over Pune. It would be very similar site at the other places in India. Simulation of the Moon and Venus on May 16, 2010, soon after the sunset But the the crescent would appear tilted as one travel northwards. Venus displays phases like the Moon. On the day of the event phase of Venus is 0.852 and its angular diameter would be about 12 second of arc. These numbers tell us that the the planet would be more or less disk and would disappear rather quickly behind the moon.	Occultation When one celestial body hides another one behind it, astronomers call the event occultation. By this definition, therefore, the solar eclipse is an occultation of the Sun by the Moon. Earthshine During the crescent phase of the Moon, we can also see the other part of the Moon illuminated due to reflection of the sunlight from the Earth. This is referred to as old moon in the new moon's arms Ashen light is a glow observed on Venus somewhat similar to the phenomenon of Earthshine found on the Moon, though dimmer. It is a yellowish-brownish glow in appearance and has been observed in some large telescopes.


David Dunham, President, IOTA, says Something interesting that observers with sensitive video cameras and telescopes might do is to see if the dark side of Venus can be seen at all just after the bright part of the planet disappears behind the Earthlit dark side of the Moon. Some observers have claimed to have seen a faint "ashen light" on the dark side of Venus [which has no moon to illuminate the dark side, like Earth has], but this has not been confirmed. A good video tape could answer and prove the "ashen light", or show that it may be just some sort of optical illusion.	We would be thankful to you if you can tell us: If you could see Venus in the broad daylight with the naked eyes. If you could observe its disappearance and how long it took for Venus to disappear behind the Moon. If you could see the reappearance and how long it took for Venus to reappear from behind the Moon. If you could you observe "ashen light". In addition to your name please do send us details of your observations such as the equipment used by you (eye, telescope, camera etc.), your location, etc. Please also tell us if you are organizing public viewing and if you would like us to announce it here.

Occultation Predictions 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 Dehra Dun 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	Reappearance I. S. T. 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
Here are the graphic simulation of where the planet would disappear and reappear for Delhi, Hyderabad and Chennai. Please note again that it might not be possible for one to see the dark limb of the moon during the event. Some past events Occultation of Venus or other planets by the Moon are not very rare event though. The Moon does occults planets every now and then. On April 14, 2007, the Moon occulted Mars. Visit this link about the similar event that took place on 18th June 2007. On November 10, 2004, India witnessed occultation of Venus by the Moon in the pre dawn hours. That morning Venus disappeared at the brighter limb of the Moon. On May 29, 2003 India witnessed a day time occultation of Venus by the Moon, that is the disappearing and reappearing act took place when the Sun was above the horizon. The best event that was widely observed from Indian was double occultation of Jupiter and Venus. It took place on April 23, 1998. The event took place around 1:30 p.m. local time. Many had claimed that they could see Jupiter with their naked eyes, close to the brighter limb of the Moon. Prior to this double occultation of Venus and Jupiter was visible from the Indian Ocean on August 18, 567 AD. Suhas Gurjar, President, Jyotirvididya Parisanstha, (an association of amateur astronomers) Pune, took this photographs Venus, Jupiter and Moon on Apr 23,1998, before the sunrise
The material here can be used freely. It is, however, expected that the source may be acknowledged. Credit : Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pune.)	Please send your observations to David Dunham, IOTA or to one of the people below. You may also write to us for any further clarification or if you wish this or future predictions may be computed for your location. The site is created for the Public Outreach Programme, IUCAA by Arvind Paranjpye - arp@iucaa.ernet.in +91 20 2560 4601 Samir Dhurde - samir@iucaa.ernet.in +91 20 2560 4603 Acknowledgements - The occultation timings were computed using Occult Predictions 3.6.0 by D Herald of Australia. The Lunar Occultation Workbench (LOW) by Eric Limburg was used for the figures.