Occultation of planets by Moon
Eight Millennium Catalog
2 000 BC - 6 000 AD
Occultations During 2009 - 2014
The term occultation is most frequently used to describe those relatively frequent occasions when the Moon passes in front of a star during the course of its orbital motion around the Earth. Since the Moon has no atmosphere and stars have no appreciable angular size, a star that is occulted by the moon will disappear or reappear very nearly instantaneously on the moon's edge, or limb. Events that take place on the Moon's dark limb are of particular interest to observers, because the lack of glare allows these occultations to more easily be observed and timed.
Several times during the year, someone on Earth can usually observe the Moon occulting a planet. Since planets, unlike stars, have significant angular sizes, lunar occultations of planets will create a narrow zone on earth from which a partial occultation of the planet will occur. An observer located within that narrow zone could observe the planet's disk partly blocked by the slowly moving moon.
During the eight millennium period 2 000 BC - 6 000 AD, Earth will experience 118 243 occultations of planets by Moon. The following table shows the number of times each planet is being occulted over this period.
| Planet | Number |
|---|---|
| Mercury | 17 897 |
| Saturn | 17 496 |
| Neptune | 16 959 |
| Mars | 16 924 |
| Jupiter | 16 503 |
| Uranus | 16 244 |
| Venus | 16 220 |
There are a minimum of 1 and a maximum 51 occultations in every calendar year. Statistics for the number of occultation each year over the 8 000 year period you can find here. The only year with only one occultation is 4194. The only year with 51 occultations is 1146.
Curious data
On several occasion during occultations of naked eye planets, a total solar eclipse takes place somewhere on Earth, so then the planet could be seen very close to Sun during totality. Occasions found are:
- 09 Jun 1107 BC - Total Solar Eclipse, Jupiter
- 17 Jun 0158 BC - Hybrid Solar Eclipse, Jupiter
- 17 Nov 0225 AD - Total Solar Eclipse, Mars
- 04 Jul 4430 AD - Total Solar Eclipse, Venus
- 20 Aug 5311 AD - Total Solar Eclipse, Jupiter
- 29 Jun 5761 AD - Total Solar Eclipse, Mercury
Moon can occult planets during lunar eclipses as well. Please check the Eight Millennium catalog: Occultation of planets by the eclipsed Moon for a list of these rare events.
Sometimes, though very rarely, Moon can occult two planets simultaneously. It is called a dual occultation. For these events you might take a look at the Eight Millennium Catalog of Dual Occultaions.
On 03 Apr 8745 an even rarer occultation is predicted to occur. Moon will simultaneously occult three naked-eye planets, namely Mercury, Venus and Jupiter. Event will take place 18 degrees western from Sun so there are good chances for future people of observing it in the morning dawn. For similar events take a look at the One Hundred Millennium Catalog of Multiple Occultations.
Longest interval in which there are no occultations at all is between occultations of Saturn on 11 Oct 5656 and one of Venus on 01 Oct 5657.
When two (or more) consecutive conjunctions of a planet with Moon cause an occultation, an occultation series is said to occur. Please check Occultations of planets by Moon: Occultation Series for more information.
Due to the large amount of occultations, catalog has been split into 80 century catalogs.