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Watch Regulus disappear behind the dark limb of June's waxing crescent Moon
and reappear almost 40 minutes later from behind the Moon's bright edge
« Occultations of Regulus don't happen every year »
Don't miss this easy, naked eye event!
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 Fig. 2 Western evening sky on night of occultation for Gainesville, FL. Click image for enlarge B/W picture. See also a colored image. |
Time Lines Time lines for cities other than Gainesville can have times different by an hour or more.
Other Cities See IOTA's lunar occulation page for the Occultation of Regulus on 19 June for a table of times for other locations.
Earth Shine You will more easily see the darkish but earthlit side of the crescent Moon occult Regulus.
Path Diagram However, the path diagram of Regulus behind the Moon (Fig. 1) should help identify both the points of disappearance and reappearance.
Planet Line Up Also look for a spectacular lineup of the crescent Moon, Saturn and Venus in the western twilight sky (eastern USA) during the occultation event (Fig. 2). See also a color version of Fig. 2.
FirstLight Article See the June/July issue of AAC's newsletter FirstLight for more details or, read the article here, "When the Moon Meets Regulus." (Requires free Adobe Reader.)
BRIEF SUMMARY OF ATM OBSERVATIONS
June 19, 2007
Members of the AAC's ATM group gather to observe the occultation of Regulus from the driveway of ATM coordinator, Chuck Broward. Dense clouds and haze prevailed but a very hazy Moon shown through. About ten minutes before disappearance, Howard Cohen announced Regulus was now visible though his TeleVue 76. Others quickly located the star close to the Moon's darkened eastern limb. Though earthshine lit the waxing crescent, haze made it difficult to locate the precise edge of the Moon although Regulus was clearly seen. Finally Regulus was observed to quickly dim out a few seconds before the predicted time!
Chuck later wrote to the ATM-OBSERVERS-L list:
"James [Quinlin] and I stayed and watch the Return of Regulus. In the 10 inch Dob the Moon seemed wrapped in gauze. And then, looking almost like the launch of a shuttle at the Cape, a splendid growing bit of white light that grew and rose from the Moon's edge. It was Regulus, returning to view. It was far more breath-taking than I thought it would be."