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[Centaur]

For those viewing from the Americas, many of the stars of the Pleiades cluster will be occulted by the Moon during the early morning (nighttime) hours of 2006 JUL 20. The waning crescent Moon will appear 23% illuminated.

Below is seen occultation data that I’ve calculated for observers at Chicago’s Adler Planetarium. From that location the brightest of the Pleiades, Mag +2.9 Alcyone, will be missed by the Moon’s northern limb by 1/45 of a lunar diameter at 02:50 CDT. Several others will also narrowly escape occultation.

The times of immersion (disappearance) and emersion (reappearance) are given in CDT. The zenith angle is shown for the position of the star measured counter-clockwise from the zenith along the lunar limb. The name or each star and its magnitude also appear. Immersions will occur on the Moon’s bright limb and emersions on the dark limb.

02:58:46 -- 101.2° -- Atlas
03:53:09 -- 317.5° -- +3.6

02:05:42 -- 056.6° -- Merope
02:31:53 -- 358.2° -- +4.2

03:06:37 -- 083.3° -- Pleione
03:53:20 -- 335.7° -- +5.0

02:46:28 -- 136.7° -- 26 Tauri
03:39:19 -- 281.5° -- +6.5

I’ve created a graphic depicting the Moon amidst the Pleiades at the moment that it makes its closest approach to Alcyone as viewed from Chicago. I’ve made another one that maps the graze paths for Alcyone. To see them, go to www.curtrenz.com/astronomical.html

The graphics may be removed soon after the event occurs.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

This will be a nice occultation to catch.

Watching a star blink out behind the limb of the Moon is always very cool. And catching the reappearance on the opposite side is a challenge to observe it just as it peeks over.

Thanks for the notice Curt, and let's hope for clear skies that morning.

Now...got to find a good observation site.

[Centaur]

We may have had adverse weather conditions in Chicagoland, but Jim Rosenstock submitted the following report to Astromart.
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I set my alarm for 2:30 a.m. and left my suburban home south of Washington DC for an open farm field a little south of me, away from close-by streetlights.

The Moon was already almost 30 degrees up, but I hadn't really missed much, because, though there were few actual clouds, we were deep in the "summer soup", i.e. poor transparency.

The thick-ish crescent Moon was easily visible naked-eye, but not the Pleiades. With binocular assistance, though, a very pretty scene indeed.

Luna was already covering several of the Sisters; during the two hours I watched, I saw Merope, Atlas, and Alcyone re-emerge off the Earthlit limb of the Moon. Very nice!

I had to bring my binoculars into my car for a "blow-dry" from the heater/AC a couple of times; it was definitely dewy. And, even with binocular assistance, the soupy skies only allowed the brightest of the Sisters to shine through...the dozens of glittering siblings I see in dark transparent skies were masked by a combination of the "soup" and the brightness of nearby Luna. The occasional passing cloud sometimes did some occulting of its own, but sometimes, backlit by Moonlight, actually added to the scene.

As Kurt noted earlier, this event was a nice "mirror" of the April 1 evening crescent Moon occultation of the Sisters.

By 5:00 a.m. local time, the sky was brightening, and the best part of the show was over. I drove home, laid down for a "minute", and got to work three hours late!

Thanks again, Kurt, for highlighting this fine event!

Clear skies,

Jim

[Centaur]

For fellow North Americans who missed this morning’s event, the Pleiades will again be occulted during the night of October 9/10 and the evening of December 3.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Curt,

We cetainly had big storms overhead this early morning, but alas...the occultation was occulted by thunderheads.

On to October!

Thanks for the info.