On Wednesday morning, set your alarm early so you can witness the Moon pass in front of Jupiter. This event may seem impossible to see by looking at the sky but if you wait long enough, it will happen! Plus, there’s an added bonus – watching the event through a telescope gives you an even better view. So don’t miss out on this crazy cosmic show!
The occultation in 2023 is special because it favors western North America. On May 17th, the Moon will look very thin (just 5% lit up) and Jupiter will have a size of 34 inches (and it’s a -2nd magnitude star). Both of them are 26 degrees away from the Sun at dawn.
People who live in a certain area stretching from Mexico up through Arizona, Nevada, and into British Columbia will have the best view of an amazing event happening in the sky before sunrise. To the east of the Rocky Mountains, people can look out for this spectacle during sunrise, but it’ll still be a stunning sight!
If the weather is nice, you can spot Jupiter with either a pair of binoculars or telescope in the daytime sky near to the Moon. The best time to find them is before sunrise and all you have to do is follow their path until they reach the daytime sky. Make sure that the bright Sun is blocked by something like a house or hill.
Jupiter is quite far away at about 5.8 times the distance from Earth to the Sun. It will move across behind the Moon, which is getting smaller in shape, and it’ll take around a minute before we can see it again along the dark side of the Moon. An organization called IOTA (International Occultation Timing Association) has worked out exact times for this event in certain places.
Catch the Unique Double Shadow Transit of Io & Europa this Year!
Every year, the Moon covers some planets. But this time something very unusual is happening – as the Moon passes in front of Jupiter, two of Jupiter’s moons Io and Europa are making a shadow on its clouds! This rare occurrence will be visible until 12:56 Universal Time (UT) when Europa’s shadow disappears from Jupiter.
So far, in this century there has been 231 times where Earth gets blocked from seeing Jupiter. It’s really unlikely that any of those times were when all three of Jupiter’s inner moons (Io, Europa and Ganymede) lined up in a special formation, called a double shadow transit. That only happens sometimes for very short periods of time which occurs because these three moons move in relation to each other in a 4:2:1 pattern.
`Experience an Astronomical Clockwork
Imagine what you could see if you were on the clouds of Jupiter while the Moon passes in front of the Earth during a solar eclipse? Pretty cool, right?
Solar eclipses on Earth happen almost perfectly, due to the Sun and Moon being equal widths in the sky. But Jupiter’s moons also experience very similar ‘eclipses’, although they last only a short few seconds! The next chance to see these eclipses will be on September 8th, 2026.
On Wednesday, there’ll be a special occurrence in the night sky you can check out if you have clear skies. It’s called a lunar occultation, and it looks like western parts of the U.S. will have good weather for it. Don’t miss this amazing event of our Universe which works like clockwork!
