The weather forecast is looking rather marginal, but there may be a chance to view this rare occultation event.
Starting just after 9am on the morning of Wed 22 Apr, the thin crescent Moon will pass in front of (occult) Venus. Even though it is daytime, both objects are bright enough they should be visible. If you can take some time off from work or school, you might want to try this. You won’t need any special equipment, your eyes are all you need. But if you have binoculars or a small telescope, they will make the sight more impressive. They will also allow you to see Venus as a crescent instead of just bright dot.
Caution: Since the sun will be up, please be very careful not to point your binoculars or your scope at the sun as this may cause permanent eye damage.
Ideally you might like to set up before sunrise so that you can more easily locate the Moon and Venus. But the forecast is indicating rain and clouds even at 5am. However there may be a break just around 9am which may allow us to see this event. Unfortunately I can’t tell at this time if during the breaks, we’ll have lots of high cirrus clouds which will block or obscure the view.
I’ve included a map below which shows the area which will experience the occultation. We are smack dab in the middle of the green lines. This means that we will see some of Venus covered by the Moon (Grazing Occultation). The light of Venus should brighten and dim as it passes behind the mountains and valleys on the Moon. If you are NW of the Green/Black line combination, then the entire surface of Venus will be covered (standard occultation). If you are SE of the single Green line, then you will see the Moon pass over top of Venus without being covered (conjunction).
Here’s a link to the page with the interactive Google map. This will allow you to zoom in or out as much as you want to find the best area.
Interactive Map
The Moon will approach Venus starting at about 9am. First contact should occur at about 9:10am. And the entire event will take about 10-15 minutes.
Sky and Telescope also has some info about this event.
To view this, it is best to find a open area with a good view to the East and South. Possibly a large park or shopping mall lot. If the conditions look promising, I’m going to try and set up at Lakeland Community Centre at 180 Van Wagners Beach Rd in Hamilton (east of the GoKarts).
Try to locate the crescent Moon first – it will be about 33degrees to the upper right of the Sun. Then look a little to the lower left of the moon and you should be able to spot the bright light from Venus.
Meteor Shower:
And also remember, if you get up early enough and the sky does open up for you, be on the look out for members of the Lyrid meteor shower which are peaking in the early morning as well. Unfortunately you are not likely to see these once the sun rises.
Good luck and good hunting.
