On May 24, the Moon will be nearly full, not a crescent as in this 1991 event.
Tom Martinez
May 20, 2005
Stars regularly cast the Moon’s shadow onto Earth. Usually, we think of it the other way around — as the Moon hiding a star — and call the phenomenon an occultation. The best event this month happens the morning of May 24 and involves the red supergiant star Antares. This star is so bloated that instead of vanishing instantaneously behind the lunar limb as most stars do, it fades quickly.
Stars regularly cast the Moon’s shadow onto Earth. Usually, we think of it the other way around — as the Moon hiding a star — and call the phenomenon an occultation. The best event this month happens the morning of May 24 and involves the red supergiant star Antares. This star is so bloated that instead of vanishing instantaneously behind the lunar limb as most stars do, it fades quickly.
This Tuesday, just as dawn brightens the sky on the East Coast, and around midnight on the West Coast, the Moon passes in front of the brightest star in Scorpius. Antares shines at magnitude 1.0 — bright enough that even the Full Moon won’t drown out the star. You’ll want to view the event through binoculars or a telescope.
| Antares occultation — May 23/24 | ||
|---|---|---|
| City | Disappearance | Reappearance |
| Boston | 4:23 a.m. EDT | not visible |
| Chicago | 3:02 a.m. CDT | 4:00 a.m. CDT |
| Denver | 1:27 a.m. MDT | 2:34 a.m. MDT |
| Los Angeles | 11:56 p.m. PDT | 1:16 a.m. PDT |
| Miami | 4:23 a.m. EDT | 5:37 a.m. EDT |
| New Orleans | 3:01 a.m. CDT | 4:17 a.m. CDT |
| San Francisco | 11:50 p.m. PDT | 1:06 a.m. PDT |
| Seattle | 11:57 p.m. PDT | 1:02 a.m. PDT |
| Tucson | 12:11 a.m. MST | 1:33 a.m. MST |
Astronomy: Roen Kelly
