The Moon eclipses Venus on 18th June 07

The Moon eclipses Venus on 18th June 07
Updates
The event was not seen in Pune - Overcast sky At about 17:30 IST or 12:00 UT Samir Dhurde and Arvind Paranjpye had wonderful visual (naked eye) sighting of Venus just east of the Moon Dr Vinod Kamble and Arvind Ranade of Vigyan Prasar, Delhi report that a big crowd had gathered at the historic masonry 16th century observatory Jantar Mantar to watch the event. Ranade writes "This is the photograph taken by one of the observer at Jantar Mantar. I could not get his name Kshitija Kelkar caught this image of the Moon and Venus at 21:18 IST or 15:48 UT about 20 minutes before the event. Both were just about visible through the clouds. Javeria Aqeel from Karachi, Pakistan reports that the " The skies were clear, with only a few passing clouds. Venus disappeared behind the moon around 9:00 PM Pakistan Standard Time. It reappeared from behind the moon quite close to the horizon, so I was unable to capture the appearance on camera. The camera was not capturing it. I filmed the disappearance on a camcorder, but it will take time for me to transfer the video to the pc. I took pictures, direct from the camera and also from the eye piece of my Telescope. Sky Watcher Explorerer 130 MM. the eyepiece used was of 25mm. The disappearance was easily seen through the scope. However i was not able to see the re-appearance from the scope due to my low viewing location. Bhargav Joshi reports form Vadodara that he only could "recorded it's (Venus') total disappearance. Some of his images are available at http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/ bhargavjoshi1978/VenusOccultation Priyadarshini Bangale from Nanded reports that she and her team we could see the event very clearly using 14" telescope of MGM"S college of engineering, Late Prof. N. C. Rana Observatory. Naveen from Bangalore Astronomical Society writes that " I was able to keep track of moon till about little less than 1 deg above the horizon. Till 9:50 pm, All Photos taken from digital camera with a tripod, and location : Bangalore." The sky at his location was very cloudy, hence the photos are grainy. Click to see his images on flickr	DrAryeh E Shimron from Jerusalem says "I was fortunate to have seen moon eclipsing Venus early this evening above Jerusalem. I could not see Venus before it disappeared behind the moon but witnessed its reappearance just a few minutes before the sun set. I am including a few of the photographs presently and will be in touch again tomorrow with detailed explanations, if you so wish. I am a retired geologist and a, very much amateur, photographer. " Shimron sends these amazing pictures

On Monday, June 18, 2007, the Moon will come directly between Venus and the Earth. This event is visible close to the sunset at Oman, Jordan, Iran, Pakistan and in the north western parts of India. 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 This event takes place after about 15:30 Universal Time (UT), which is very close to GMT. The exact time of the event will depend upon the location of the observer. The occultation timings for various cities of Iran, Pakistan and for Kabul are given in the table below. Mohammad Shawkat Odeh, Islamic Crescents' Observation Project (ICOP), writes that "I'm aware that my friends in -at least- Oman and Jordan will organize public observation for this event. I guess we will do the same here in UAE." 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. 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. As the time passes by one would see the gap between the Moon and Venus becoming lesser. On June 18, the Moon rises about 3 hours after the Sun and therefore about five hours after the local sunrise the Moon will be well above the horizon to the eastern horizon. The new moon is on June 15 and on June 18 only about 15 percent of the visible disk of the Moon will be illuminated by the sunlight. It's phase would be 0.151 and thus it will appear crescent. It would be a magnificent sight closer to the sunset with Venus shining brilliantly above the crescent Moon. Venus just touching the darker limb of the Moon. the start of the event	Venus displays phases like the Moon. On the day of the event phase of Venus is 0.44. Though we know that some people can see phases of Venus with the naked eyes but most would need at least a small telescope to make out Venus' half phase. This is how Venus would appear through an amateur telescope It would take the Moon almost a minute to cover Venus completely. Angular size of Venus will be 26.41 arc seconds. However since only half of Venus is what we can see the event would be over in less then a minute. Normally it is not very easy to spot an object reappearing from behind the Moon, however, in this case with Venus being very bright it would not be too difficult, except that the reappearance phase of the event takes place too close to the horizon. The reappearance of Venus 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 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 Oman, Jordan and UAE Mohammad Odeh Vigyan Prasar and Nehru Planetarium Delhi Arvind Ranade

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 22 01 20 9 Ahemadabad 21 33 52 12 Ajmer 21 31 14 11 Alwar 21 30 56 10 Amravati 21 35 51 6 Bangalore 21 43 59 2 Belgaum 21 41 12 6 Coimbatore 21 45 23 1 Girawali 21 37 47 9 Hyderabad 21 38 44 4 IUCAA, Pune 21 38 15 8 Jaipur 21 31 8 11 Kolhapur 21 40 2 7 Lucknow 21 31 53 6 Mangalore 21 44 0 4 Mt Abu 21 32 34 12 Mumbai 21 37 46 9 Mysore 21 44 19 3 Nagpur 21 35 31 5 Nanded 21 37 27 6 Nasik 21 36 48 9 New Delhi 21 30 16 10 Ooty 21 45 4 2 Panaji 21 41 20 7 ThanaGazi 21 30 53 10 Udaipur 21 32 35 11 Vadodara 21 34 38 11 Vijayawada 21 39 4 1 Reappearance will be seen very close to the horizon only at the following locations Ahemadabad, Ajmer, Alwar, Jaipur, Mt Abu, New Delhi, ThanaGazi, Udaipur At other places the moon would have set before the reappearance of Venus.	For various cities in Iran, Pakistan and Kabul [times given are in UT ] Disappearance U. T. Moon Location h m s Alt Karachi 16 0 47 18 Hyderabad Pak 16 0 40 17 Rawalpindi 15 55 31 16 Islamabad 15 55 27 16 Peshawar 15 54 21 17 Karachi 16 0 47 18 Kabul 15 52 26 20 Mashad 15 43 2 29 Shiraz 15 46 41 34 Esfahan 15 41 9 36 Tehran 15 36 9 37 Shahr-e Rey 15 36 18 37 Zanzan 15 31 36 41 Rasht 15 31 48 40 Tabriz 15 31 57 43 Reappearance U. T. Moon Location h m s Alt Karachi 16 55 27 6 Hyderabad Pak 16 53 52 5 Rawalpindi 16 33 10 8 Islamabad 16 32 52 8 Peshawar 16 33 18 9 Karachi 16 55 27 6 Kabul 16 33 44 11 Mashad 16 34 55 19 Shiraz 16 51 7 20 Esfahan 16 45 5 23 Tehran 16 38 35 25 Shahr-e Rey 16 38 48 25 Zanzan 16 36 39 28 Rasht 16 35 14 27 Tabriz 16 40 0 29 For most of the locations above the sun would be above the horizon at the time of the disappearance event and would have just set at the reappearance phase of 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. 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.