12/29/2017 – Ephemeris – Last occultation of the star Aldebaran by the Moon is tomorrow night

Ephemeris for Friday, December 29th. The Sun will rise at 8:19. It’ll be up for 8 hours and 51 minutes, setting at 5:10. The Moon, half way from first quarter to full, will set at 5:08 tomorrow morning.

We have one last cool astronomical event that can be seen from here in 2017. Of course, weather permitting. Tomorrow night the Moon will occult the bright star Aldebaran in Taurus the bull from 6:17 to 7:17 p.m. I’m not dabbling with the black arts here, even though I’m using the Occult 4 program to find it. In astronomy occult is a verb meaning to hide, and the event is called an occultation. The Moon will appear to move in front of, or hide the star Aldebaran. At 6:17 p.m. Aldebaran will disappear at the dark edge of the Moon at its 8 o’clock position. Binoculars will be needed to spot the star against the glare of the bright Moon before the event. Aldebaran will pop out from behind the Moon at a bit above the 3 o’clock position at 7:17 p.m.

The times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.

Addendum

Occultation visibility map for the occultation of Aldebaran by the Moon for us in the Unites States, the early evening of December 30, 2017. Created using Occult 4 by IOTA.

Occultation start 6:17 p.m. December 30, 2017. as seen from the Grand Traverse area of Michigan. Actual times may vary depending on your location. Created using Stellarium.

Occultation end 7:17 p.m. December 30, 2017. as seen from the Grand Traverse area of Michigan. Actual times may vary depending on your location. Created using Stellarium.

Note the times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area. It will vary by a few minutes for northern lower Michigan.  The position angles of the entrance and exit points of Aldebaran will also be different.

Otherwise use a planetarium program like Stellarium to preview the event. However, set the program for topocentric coordinates. In Stellarium that’s in the Configuration window, Tools Tab and check the Topocentric coordinates box. Topocentric coordinates are the apparent positions for your location on the Earth. So also make sure your location is correct. The geocentric conjunction of the two bodies will be December, 31, 0:49.2 UT, so it will occur after midnight on the morning of December 31st for locations in northern Europe and Asia.

Program Note

The January preview will be an Ephemeris Extra post on December 31st.