Antares Occultation Series Starts Soon

[CentaurZ]

The magnitude +0.9 star Antares in Scorpius was last occulted (covered) by the Moon during 2005-2010. The next series will commence on 2023 AUG 25 and conclude on 2028 AUG 27.

The long absence is due to the 18.6-year nodal cycle of the Moon’s orbital plane relative to the ecliptic (Earth’s orbital plane). The lunar orbital plane is inclined by 5.15˚ to the ecliptic, and Antares lies 4.57˚ south of the ecliptic. It is only during that period of the nodal cycle in which the southern portion of the lunar orbital plane is in the vicinity of Antares that Antares occultations are possible.

As always, each occultation will only be observable in a specifically defined region. The initial and final portion of the series will only be visible by folks in the northern hemisphere. The long central portion will be seen by those in the south.

Your photos and descriptions of Antares occultations would be welcome additions to this thread.

Edited August 19, 2023 by CentaurZ

[Mandy D]

@CentaurZ Sadly, for UK observers, this event appears to be only visible in North America. There appears to be a long list of upcoming occultations on his website, but I suspect they will be for North America, again. Is this correct?

https://curtrenz.com/occultations.html

[JuergenB]

The only visible occultation from Europe in 2023 will be in the afternoon hours of October 18. The angular distance to the sun will be 45°, therefore, depending on the sky transparency, there will be a chance to observe the event.

[Mandy D]

@JuergenB Thank you. I see that it is at 14:13 UTC.

[CentaurZ]

 

4 hours ago, JuergenB said:

The only visible occultation from Europe in 2023 will be in the afternoon hours of October 18. The angular distance to the sun will be 45°, therefore, depending on the sky transparency, there will be a chance to observe the event.

Indeed, on that date in Europe the Antares occultation should be visible by telescope in daylight. On 2028 JUL 04, the immersion of quite low Antares may be barely visible from Britain but not Germany.

The region of each monthly occultation shifts about a third of the way westward around the globe. During the first half the series it will keep shifting southward, then head back northward during the second half.

Below are my North American graze map and a Chicago data chart for the upcoming occultation,

Edited August 20, 2023 by CentaurZ

[CentaurZ]

On 20/08/2023 at 04:54, Mandy D said:

@CentaurZ Sadly, for UK observers, this event appears to be only visible in North America. There appears to be a long list of upcoming occultations on his website, but I suspect they will be for North America, again. Is this correct?

https://curtrenz.com/occultations.html

See my previous post for a detailed answer.  The monthly regions of Antares occultation visibility will hop around the globe, but will almost always miss the UK. My list to which you are referring is for the whole world and not just North America. It can be seen below.

Edited October 27, 2023 by CentaurZ

[majer]

Here there are maps of all Antares' occultations during this season generated in Occult software (there are 68 events during this 2023-2028 season).

On each map:

- white line means the event occurs during the night,

- red dashed line means the event occurs during the day,

- blue line means the event occurs at dusk (left from the white line) or dawn (right from the white line),

- cyan loop on the right marks the area, where the event occurs during moonset,

- cyan loop on the left marks the area, where the event occurs during moonrise.

 

Also if the line is mostly white, is means there is Full Moon, if mostly red dashed, there is New Moon, if the line is half white and half red dashed it means First Quarter Moon, if red dashed is on the left from white, and Last Quarter Moon if red dashed line is on the right from white.

 

As you can see the whole Europe has a bad luck this time and the only event, which occurred over horizon above most of our continent was a couple of days ago, October 18th, but it happened during the day.  Another one event visible close to UK will occur Apr 12th 2028, visible over South-Eastern Europe and West Asia, and the last one July 4th 2028, visible from UK during moonset, and the whole from Iberian Peninsula.

If someone is interested in a particular event from a particular place, I can check what Occult will show in this case.