I'm pleased to be able to offer information about lunar occultations and maps showing where they're visible. So many of the events this almanac covers are effects of perspective. Occultations are among them. The moon passes in front of the sun during a solar eclipse. The moon passes in front of various other objects in our sky as well. That's what an occultation is. That's not the only kind of occultation. Asteroids pass in front of faint stars all the time. Planets pass in front of stars too. And, very rarely, a planet may even be seen to pass in front of another planet. The last time that happened was in 1818 and the next time will be in 2065!

This page will deal with lunar occultations of planets and the brightest stars. For those who seek information about other occultations, please visit one of these web sites: The International Occultation Timing Association, The Asteroidal Occultation Observers in Europe, International Occultation Timing Association European Section, and Steve Preston's Asteroid Occultation Page. Those pages contain information about upcoming asteroid occultations and more lunar occultations than are listed here.

Here are some visibility maps for several of the occultations happening during late 2008 and 2009. These maps were made with the free program WinOccult 3.6 before I knew about the updated WinOccult 4. Alcyone is one of the stars in the Pleiades. Al Niyat and Antares are stars in Scorpio. Kaus Borealis is also known as the "bowstar" of Sagittarius.

Occultations of Alcyone by the moon

Occultations of Al Niyat by the moon

Occultations of Antares by the moon

Occultations of Kaus Borealis by the moon

Occultations of Mercury by the moon

Occultations of Venus by the moon

Occultations of Mars by the moon

Occultations of Jupiter by the moon