lunar occultation

At 2.12am on the morning of Wednesday 14th January the Moon will pass in
from of the bright star Porrima in the constellation of Virgo. The star will disappear behind
the bright limb of the Moon so it may be difficult to see, however at 2.57 am the star will reappear from behind the dark limb of the moon. This event will be visible all across Ireland possibly without the need for binoculars and although the times will
vary slightly across the country they should not be more than 5 minutes out anywhere.

This event is special as it is the brightest star that will be occulted by the Moon in 2004.

As John Flannery pointed out to me, Porrima is a close double so you may see a stepped reappearance.

Cheers,
~Al

(Data swiped from the BAA almanic)

Al,

I was about to post a reminder to the group as well. For my situation, the disappearance will occur around 04:45:48 UT+2 with the reappearance being around 05:37:30 UT+2. At the risk of stating the obvious, I will be looking to image the event.

I also noted your comment that this is brightest lunar occultation for 2004. My situation is slightly different, for precisely a month later I have delta-Sco being occulted which is slightly brighter than gamma-Vir. You may wish to check your local circumstances in the event this particular occultation is also visible from Ireland.

Best wishes.

Anthony.

And while you're waiting for Porrima to reappear, you can watch Io and it's shadow transit the face of Jupiter! The transit of Io itself starts at 00.37, and ends at 02.50; the shadow transit starts at 23.37 and ends at 01.51. Jupiter will be about 21 degrees along the ecliptic from the moon. All this should make for an interesting night's viewing, if the weather holds.

I also noted your comment that this is brightest lunar occultation for 2004. My situation is slightly different, for precisely a month later I have delta-Sco being occulted which is slightly brighter than gamma-Vir. You may wish to check your local circumstances in the event this particular occultation is also visible from Ireland.

You are correct. delta-Sco is not listed in the BAA list so i missed it. But cheching with some astronomy aoftware shows that this is indeed visible from dublin.

Cheers,
~Al