Astro-Challenge: Watch the Moon Occult Venus in the Daytime

Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Astro-Challenge: Watch the Moon Occult Venus in the Daytime

Astro-Challenge: Watch the Moon Occult Venus in the Daytime:

The Moon meets Venus on February 26th, 2014. Image credit and copyright: Konstantinos Spanos

The year 2015 saved one of the best astronomical events for last, as the waning crescent Moon occults (passes in front of) the planet Venus as seen from North America on Monday, December 7^th.

This is the final of seven naked eye occultations of planets by the Moon in 2015, three of which involve Venus. It’s also the best of the year, well positioned for North America. The event will transpire in daytime skies for a majority of the continent, but don’t despair; Venus is easily visible to the unaided eye near the limb of the daytime Moon. Lucky residents in southern Alaska will get to see the event occur under twilight dawn skies before sunrise, while western North America will have a favorable view after sunrise, with the Moon and Venus high in the sky. Eastern North America will have the toughest challenge, with the pair sandwiched between the high noonday Sun and the western horizon.

On the morning of December 7^th, the Moon is a 13% illuminated waning crescent and just four days from New. Venus shines at magnitude -4.2, is 69% illuminated, and 16” in size. The event occurs 42 degrees west of the Sun, and Venus will ingress along the Moon’s daytime side and emerge along its dark nighttime limb.

The viewing area for the December 7th occultation of Venus by the Moon. Solid lines denote the region within which the event occurs before sunrise. Image credit: The IOTA/Occult 4.2

The International Occultation and Timing Association (IOTA) maintains a great page including event times for northwestern North America. Here’s a selection of events for daytime sites:

Los Angeles, CA: (Moon elevation 44 degrees)

Ingress: 8:06 PST

Egress: 9:54 PST

Salt Lake City, UT (Moon elevation 39 degrees)

Ingress: 9:19 MST

Egress: 10:55 MST

Winnipeg, Canada (Moon elevation 27 degrees)

Ingress: 10:58 CST

Egress: 11:57 CST

Dallas, TX (Moon elevation 41 degrees)

Ingress: 11:05 AM CST

Egress: 12:42 PM CST

Toronto, Canada (Moon elevation 20 degrees)

Ingress: 12:31 PM EST

Egress: 1:35 PM EST

Miami, FL (Moon elevation 27 degrees)

Ingress: 12:54 PM EST

Egress: 2:15 PM EST

Boston, MA (Moon elevation 14 degrees)

Ingress: 12:45 PM EST

Egress: 1:44 PM EST

Note: Moon the elevation value quoted is for the start (ingress) of each event.

Venus near the daytime Moon as seen from Tampa, Florida at noon on December 7th. Image credit: Stellarium

Unfortunately, the gibbous phase of Venus means we probably won’t get a chance to replicate the hunt for the elusive and spurious ‘ashen light of Venus’ watched for by David and Joan Dunham from the Australian Outback earlier this year on October 8^th, as Venus emerged from behind the dark limb of the Moon:

The planet Venus is surprisingly bright against the blue daytime sky, and its cloud tops present a much higher albedo at 90%. This is the highest of any planet in the solar system, compared to the Moon’s paltry average albedo of 13%. We easily managed to catch Venus near the daytime Moon low to the horizon during an occultation seen from northern Maine on June 18^th, 2007.

Reports of Venus in the daytime are also legend… one medieval UFO report of a ‘star’ burning near the daytime crescent Moon spied on June 13^th, 1589 by residents of the French village of Saint-Denis was actually the planet Venus. You can wonder just who might have spotted the silvery daytime ember first, and how fear spread through the village, at least enough that someone thought to chronicle the curious sighting…

Westward across the international dateline on morning of December 8^th, skywatchers in Australia and the Far East we be treated to a close pairing of the crescent Moon and Venus reminiscent of the Islamic crescent and star symbol that graces many national flags. Watch for Earthshine on the dark side of the Moon, the double reflection of sunlight of the gibbous Earth coming back for one more pass.

But wait, there’s more: Comet C/2013 US10 Catalina shines around magnitude +5.5 just 5 degrees from the Moon-Venus pair on the mornings of the 7^th and 8th. If you haven’t seen this binocular comet yet, early next week is a great time to try.

Venus, the waning crescent Moon, and Comet US10 Catalina as seen from latitude 30 degrees north at 5 AM local. Image credit: Starry Night Pro 7

The Moon sits just 0.0027 AU or 1.25 light seconds away on the morning of December 7^th, while Venus is 1.004 AU (8+ light minutes) and Comet US10 Catalina is currently 1.41 AU and just under 12 light minutes distant. Watch that comet, as it is headed northward and will put on its best show in early 2016.

Venus (arrowed) near the daytime Moon. Image credit: Dave Dickinson

And speaking of 2016, we are indeed hammering away like Santa’s elves at our annual ‘Top 101 Astronomical Events for 2016’ post; expect it out on the buffer week between Christmas and New Years Day. Thanks to all who’ve inquired, we always like to refer to it as the ‘blog post it takes us six months to write!’

About David Dickinson

David Dickinson is an Earth science teacher, freelance science writer, retired USAF veteran & backyard astronomer. He currently writes and ponders the universe from Tampa Bay, Florida.

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The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is the United States government agency responsible for the civilian space program as well as aeronautics and aerospace research. President Dwight D. Eisenhower established the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 1958 with a distinctly civilian (rather than military) orientation encouraging peaceful applications in space science. The National Aeronautics and Space Act was passed on July 29, 1958, disestablishing NASA's predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). The new agency became operational on October 1, 1958.

UFO SIGHTINGS PHOTO PHOTOGRAPHY

The Oxford English Dictionary defines a UFO as "An unidentified flying object; a 'flying saucer'." The first published book to use the word was authored by Donald E. Keyhoe. The acronym "UFO" was coined by Captain Edward J. Ruppelt, who headed Project Blue Book, then the USAF's official investigation of UFOs. He wrote, "Obviously the term 'flying saucer' is misleading when applied to objects of every conceivable shape and performance. For this reason the military prefers the more general, if less colorful, name: unidentified flying objects. UFO (pronounced Yoo-foe) for short." Other phrases that were used officially and that predate the UFO acronym include "flying flapjack", "flying disc", "unexplained flying discs", "unidentifiable object", and "flying saucer". The phrase "flying saucer" had gained widespread attention after the summer of 1947. On June 24, a civilian pilot named Kenneth Arnold reported seeing nine objects flying in formation near Mount Rainier. Arnold timed the sighting and estimated the speed of discs to be over 1,200 mph (1,931 km/h). At the time, he described the objects' shape as being somewhat disc-like or saucer-like, leading to newspaper accounts of "flying saucers" and "flying discs". In popular usage the term UFO came to be used to refer to claims of alien spacecraft. and because of the public and media ridicule associated with the topic, some investigators prefer to use such terms as unidentified aerial phenomenon (or UAP) or anomalous phenomena, as in the title of the National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena (NARCAP).

UFO PHOTO PHOTOGRAPHY

UFO - Unidentified Flying Object An unidentified flying object, or UFO, in its most general definition, is any apparent anomaly in the sky that is not identifiable as a known object or phenomenon. Culturally, UFOs are associated with claims of visitation by extraterrestrial life or government-related conspiracy theories, and have become popular subjects in fiction. While UFOs are often later identified, sometimes identification may not be possible owing to the usually low quality of evidence related to UFO sightings (generally anecdotal evidence and eyewitness accounts). Stories of fantastical celestial apparitions have been told since antiquity, but the term "UFO" (or "UFOB") was officially created in 1953 by the United States Air Force (USAF) to serve as a catch-all for all such reports. In its initial definition, the USAF stated that a "UFOB" was "any airborne object which by performance, aerodynamic characteristics, or unusual features, does not conform to any presently known aircraft or missile type, or which cannot be positively identified as a familiar object." Accordingly, the term was initially restricted to that fraction of cases which remained unidentified after investigation, as the USAF was interested in potential national security reasons and/or "technical aspects" (see Air Force Regulation 200-2). During the late 1940s and through the 1950s, UFOs were often referred to popularly as "flying saucers" or "flying discs". The term UFO became more widespread during the 1950s, at first in technical literature, but later in popular use. UFOs garnered considerable interest during the Cold War, an era associated with a heightened concern for national security. Various studies have concluded that the phenomenon does not represent a threat to national security nor does it contain anything worthy of scientific pursuit (e.g., 1951 Flying Saucer Working Party, 1953 CIA Robertson Panel, USAF Project Blue Book, Condon Committee).

Photos of Nature | Nature Photography What is The Universe

Photos of Nature | Nature Photography What is The Universe

Tuesday, December 8, 2015