The Moon occults the Pleiades

The Moon passes in front of several stars in the Pleiades cluster in an occultation this morning, best seen from North and Central America. Both the view and its timing are heavily location dependent — you can check this International Occultation Timing Association’s page to find when Electra (17 Tauri), the first star to vanish behind the lunar limb, will vanish from your observing site. 

In the Midwest, the Moon rises in the northeast around 1:15 A.M. CDT (note this time is also location dependent) and 4th-magnitude Electra disappears around 3:30 A.M. CDT. It reappears about an hour later — the reappearance will be easier to catch than the disappearance, as it occurs at the darker, shadowed limb of the Moon. This means Electra will pop into view from darkness rather than disappearing behind the bright limb, where poor contrast will make the proceedings a bit more difficult to watch.

The Moon continues through the Pleiades as dawn breaks, so which stars you will see disappear or reappear depends on your location and when the sky grows too light to follow the event. Observers along the U.S. West Coast may be able to catch the reappearance of 3rd-magnitude Alcyone (Eta [η] Tau) in the eastern portion of the cluster. (The IOTA timing page for this star is here.)

Uranus is currently located some 4.5° south-southeast of the Pleiades — you can hop down to observe the 6th-magnitude ice giant with binoculars or a telescope in between tracking the Moon’s progress through the cluster. The Moon will pass 5° due north of Uranus at 9 A.M. EDT.

Sunrise: 5:48 A.M.
Sunset: 8:24 P.M.
Moonrise: 1:15 A.M.
Moonset: 4:59 P.M.
Moon Phase: Waning crescent (21%)
*Times for sunrise, sunset, moonrise, and moonset are given in local time from 40° N 90° W. The Moon’s illumination is given at 12 P.M. local time from the same location.

For a look ahead at more upcoming sky events, check out our full Sky This Week column.