The Moon eclipses Mars

The Moon eclipses Mars	on	10th May 08
Updates Some reports first The event was successfully observed at IUCAA Pune. The programme was conducted by Arvind Paranjpye. Manasi Deshmukh-Shah was the time keeper giving observers the exact time count. Abha Vaishampayan (C8 telescope), Soniya Deshpande and Shrikant Vinchurkar (8 inch) timed the event. Dhruv Paranjpye observed the event with 42 mm refractor. Priyanka Charuvedi and Mukul Mhaskey used C14 with Philips web cam and recorded the event. Samir Dhurde provided the crucial computer support. We have uploaded the films captured. The reappearance took place just below Mare Crisium on the Moon. A sudden gust of strong wind shifted Mars out of the field at the end of it, but the most important part was captured. :) Bedadyuti Chakraborty of Bioscope, the amateur astronomers club of Dr Reddy's laboratory, reports successful observation of the event from Hyderabad. Mayuresh Prabhune, Khagol Vishwa, Pune, reports successful observations Darshan Joshi, from Badlapur, reports observations with a 6" Newtonian telescope and binoculars, The following data is reported. Time of disappearance : 19: 47 Time of reappearance : 21: 04 Time taken by mars to disappear after touching lunar disc= 9.16 secs reappear completely = 6.67 secs The bright limb of the moon must have made the difference. Amit Dhakulkar of HBCSE, Mumbai also observed it with his friends. He caught Mars on the limb of Moon, just before it disappeared! 100 odd participants from SPACE* observed the event in Delhi. They used a meade 10" lx200gps f/10 to capture and put up this film.*		Disappearance Reappearance Amit's images:


Details of the event: On Saturday, May 10, 2008, the Moon will come directly between Mars and the Earth. This event is visible everywhere in India. The map below shows the area over which the event can be seen. The line colours have the following meanings: Cyan - the curves of Occultation D or R at moonrise or moonset White continuous line - the northern and southern occultation limits (graze paths), with the event occurring in nighttime Blue continuous line - occultation limits, event in twilight; Red dotted line - occultation limits, event in daylight. Observers in India are well placed to observe this event. It takes place after about 7:30 p.m. Indian Standard Time (IST). The exact time of the event will depend upon the location of the observer. The occultation timings for various Indian Cities are given in the table below. For those west of India the Sun will be above the horizon and it would be interesting to see if the observers can spot Mars with respect to the Moon, which would be about 33% illuminated. It would be a nice sight soon after the sunset with Mars just above the Moon. Mars just touching the darker limb of the Moon. the start of the event On the day of the event angular diameter of Mars would be about 5.5 arc seconds. It would take about 13 seconds to go behind the Moon and about 10 sec to come out Mars reappears close to mare Crisium. Normally it is not very easy to spot an object reappearing from behind the Moon, however, in this case with Mars being reasonably bright at 1.3 mag it would not be too difficult catch reappearance sequence. Download this occultation simulation mov file - Mars will not look as big as shown in thin the clip. As you observe this event try and rescored the following If you could see Mars in the broad daylight with the naked eyes. If you could observe its disappearance and how long it took for Mars to disappear behind the Moon. If you could see the reappearance and how long it took for Mars to reappear from behind the Moon. 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. We would like to display contributions like your observations, photographs etc. Visit the Venus page			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. Public Viewing at Nagpur: Ulhas Deshpande will set up an 8 and 4 inch telescope and 15X65 binoculars for observatons. He also plans display the event on computer using a web cam. New Delhi Nehru Planetarium contact Rathnasree Birla Vidya Niketan, contact Avnish Anand SPACE is planning to arrange public viewing

Occultation Predictions Altitude of Mars at the time of the event is given in degrees. Sun Alt is the altitude of the Sun at the time of the event. 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. If you would like us to calculate predictions for your location, please send us latitude and longitude of your place, it need not be very accurate.
For various cities in India. [times given are in Indian Standard Time (IST).] Disappearance I. S. T. Obj Sun Location h m s Alt Alt Agra 19 44 20 56 -11 Amritsar 19 34 07 60 -04 Bangalore 20 03 24 49 -20 Chennai 20 05 57 46 -23 Dehra Dun 19 32 00 56 -09 Hyderabad 19 57 13 51 -18 IUCAA, Pune 19 48 42 58 -12 Indore 19 45 10 57 -11 Jaipur 19 40 08 59 -08 Kolkata 20 06 46 41 -25 Lucknow 19 50 22 52 Mumbai 19 46 39 59 -10 Naini Tal 19 45 42 54 -11 New Delhi 19 41 37 57 -09 Nanded 19 52 39 55 Udaipur 19 38 46 61 -07 For various cities in Iran, Pakistan and Kabul [times given are in UT ] Disappearance U. T. Obj Location h m s Alt Karachi 13 56 24 70 02 Hyderabad Pak Rawalpindi Islamabad 13 58 51 62 -01 Peshawar Kabul 13 49 08 67 -04 Mashad 13 25 49 75 17 Shiraz 13 19 57 82 23 Esfahan Tehran 13 08 37 75 27 Shahr-e Rey Zanzan Rasht Tabriz 12 55 54 70 34		For various cities in Iran, Pakistan and Kabul [times given are in UT ] Reappearance I. S. T. Obj Sun Location h m s Alt Alt Agra 20 48 09 41 Amritsar 20 36 08 47 Bangalore 21 14 56 33 -36 Chennai 21 16 24 30 -38 Dehra Dun 20 39 39 44 Hyderabad 21 09 06 34 -33 IUCAA, Pune 21 04 17 40 -28 Indore 20 57 26 41 Jaipur 20 48 44 43 -21 Kolkata 20 58 15 29 -35 Lucknow 20 38 53 39 Mumbai 21 02 54 42 -26 Naini Tal 20 42 11 42 New Delhi 20 44 36 43 -21 Nanded 21 05 16 37 Udaipur 20 52 47 44 F [ Reappearance U. T. Obj Location h m s Alt Karachi 15 17 01 51 Hyderabad Pak Rawalpindi Islamabad 15 00 03 50 Peshawar Kabul 14 56 46 53 -08 Mashad 14 45 12 63 02 Shiraz 14 46 12 71 05 Esfahan Tehran 14 35 09 70 10 Shahr-e Rey Zanzan Rasht Tabriz 14 22 21 73 17
For information about this event for other stations check out IOTA site More information is available at The International Occultation Timing Association 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. 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 India 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. Suhas Gurjar, Pune, took this photographs Venus, Jupiter and Moon on Apr 23,1998, just before the sunrise Prior to this, double occultation of Venus and Jupiter was visible from the Indian Ocean on August 18, 567 AD.
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 to I.O.T.A. President, David Dunham, 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 4.3.0 by D Herald of Australia. The Lunar Occultation Workbench (LOW) by Eric Limburg was used for the figures.