Return to IndexLunar Occultations (3)
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A lunar occultation happens when the Moon passes in front of another celestial object when seen from the viewpoint of an observer on the Earth. While not exactly rare, they are sufficiently unusual to make them interesting events, and of course if the occulted object is a planet they provide some dramatic photo opportunities! When I looked more closely into the circumstances under which an occultation can occur I realised that things were not entirely straightforward. For example, Saturn tends to undergo no occultations for many years and then suddenly has up to a dozen in a row. The pattern for Jupiter is also non-regular, but in a very different way. Why should this be so? This study seeks to find at least some of the answers. Click on the title to read the article. |