Jupiter occultation - 12 Aug 2012 (Singapore/Malaysia)

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starfinder
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Jupiter occultation - 12 Aug 2012 (Singapore/Malaysia)

Post by starfinder »

I was looking at the celestial conditions for the morning hours of Sun 12 August 2012 (the earlier of the two Perseids nights) when I noticed that Jupiter was very close to the Moon.

I then confirmed using my planetarium program and the free Occult4 specialised occultation prediction software that we in Singapore would be able to see Jupiter exit an occultation by the Moon at around 3:10am in the early morning of Sun 12 August 2012. However, these two celestial objects would only be about 12 degrees above the eastern horizon at that time. Nevertheless, if it's not cloudy, we would be able to see this event from Singapore.

Jupiter would exit the dark side of the Moon, along with Io, Callisto, Ganymede and Europa (Europa would then be transiting Jupiter, so that would be a double occultation exit). (We would not be able to view the "entry" of Jupiter behind the Moon from Singapore as that would happen just before the Moon rises.)

Here are the exact timings for Singapore (at 1d 18m North, 103d 50m East) taken from Occult4:
Jupiter 3:09:25am (initial exit of Jupiter's disk)
Io 3:08:44am
Europa 3:09:39 (transiting Jupiter)
Callisto 3:12:18am
Ganymede 3:20:15am

(Note: the times would differ when viewed from elsewhere, e.g. from Mersing in Johor, these would occur about a minute earlier.)

A check with my planetarium program shows that it would take about 1.5 minutes for Jupiter to complete the exit.

The Moon would then be a waning crescent, 31% illuminated.

As the exit of Jupiter would take place from the dark (non-lit) side of the Moon, I believe we would see Jupiter and its moons suddenly appear from blackness. (Or perhaps that part of the Moon would be partly lit by Earth shine?) So it would be a case of "now you don't see it, but then you do!".

I've done a quick check and have ascertained that the exit of Jupiter would be visible throughout Johor too (and in fact I think all of Peninsula Malaysia).

So those of us doing a Perseids watch that night would have another sight to look out for too!

Here is the webpage of the free Occult4 software:
http://www.lunar-occultations.com/iota/occult4.htm

And here is a screenshot showing the end of the occultation of Jupiter:

Image
Last edited by starfinder on Sat Jul 07, 2012 4:13 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Gary
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Re: Jupiter occultation - 12 Aug 2012 (Singapore/Johor)

Post by Gary »

Good stuff! Thanks for the heads up!
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Re: Jupiter occultation - 12 Aug 2012 (Singapore/Johor)

Post by starfinder »

Below are the plots of the worldwide visibility/non-visibility of the occultation of Jupiter on 12 Aug 2012 Singapore time (equivalent to 11 Aug 2012 UTC), generated from the Occult4 free software.

Here is the explanation from the program of what the various coloured lines mean:
"This world map is a Mercator projection showing the basic circumstances of an occultation, The time of geocentric conjunction is listed at the bottom of the map.

When the map is drawn in colour, the line colours have the following meanings:

Cyan - the curves of Occultation D or R at moonrise or moonset
White continuous line - the northern and southern occultation limits (graze paths), with the event occurring in nighttime
Blue continuous line - occultation limits, event in twilight;
Red dotted line - occultation limits, event in daylight."



Hmmm... it seems that this occulation would be visible from most of Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines. I fact, from Borneo and most of the Philippines, both the start and end of the occultation would be visible.

Occultations of the planets from any particular place on Earth are quite rare. I've done a run with the Occult4 program and it shows that from today to 2020, there would only be 3 occultations of Jupiter visible from Singapore (on 11 Aug 2012, 6 Aug 2016, and 26 Dec 2019). I intend to soon start another thread on this generally in the General Astronomy section. Of course however, there would be other occurences of occultations of Jupiter visible from elsewhere on Earth at other times.

http://i.picoodle.com/6c6j6gtk
Image

http://i.picoodle.com/e50j6gt1
Image
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Re: Jupiter occultation - 12 Aug 2012 (Singapore/Malaysia)

Post by shirox »

wow nice!
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Re: Jupiter occultation - 12 Aug 2012 (Singapore/Malaysia)

Post by mymoon »

Thank you for the information.

I did a simulation on Sky Safari Pro. Yes you can see from Kuala Lumpur too weather permitting.

for Kuala Lumpur at 03:05 MYT(+8 GMT) Sun Aug 12

Image

and at 03:06 MYT

Image


BTW there will be a Grazing Occultation of Jupiter visible in Europe on Sun Jul 15

I did the simulation for Cardiff as I will be there around that time for my son's graduation

Image

Pray for clear skies.

cheers
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Re: Jupiter occultation - 12 Aug 2012 (Singapore/Malaysia)

Post by starfinder »

Just a reminder that the occultation of Jupiter by the Moon will take place at around 3am this Sunday morning, 12 August 2012.

See the first post on this thread for details of the timing.

Hope someone manages to image it!
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Re: Jupiter occultation - 12 Aug 2012 (Singapore/Malaysia)

Post by rlow »

That's a wonderful event to look out for! Thanks for bringing this to our attention, Gavin.
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Re: Jupiter occultation - 12 Aug 2012 (Singapore/Malaysia)

Post by shirox »

at 3am jupiter should still be very low. No chance for me to see it at all..... block by buildings...
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