SPICANTARES

There will be two occultations by the Moon of first magnitude stars before 2005 ends. 

During Christmas morning, December 25, Mag 1.0 Spica in Virgo will be occulted across much of North America. For those in the western half of the continent it will be a nighttime event. For easterners it will occur during daylight, but the star should be visible in a telescope. The southern graze path will cut through the western USA from Alaska through Washington State, Texas and into Mexico and Central America. There will be no northern graze path. Spica will be at RA 13:25.5 and Dec S 11°12’. The apparent disk of the waning Moon will be 33% illuminated. 

On December 29, Mag 1.1 Antares in Scorpius will be occulted across Southern and Southeastern Asia, Indonesia and Australia (except SW and SE Australia.) This will be a pre-dawn event from India, although the northern graze path will pass through the Chinese portion of the Himalayas. For regions east of India the occultation will occur in daylight, although the star should be visible with a telescope. The southern graze path will cut across Australia. Antares will be at RA 16:29.7 and Dec S 26°27’. The apparent disk of the waning Moon will be 6% illuminated. 

Below are my calculated geographic coordinates for the points on the Spica graze path in North America separated by five degrees of longitude. The times are UT. ZA is the Zenith Angle, which is the position of the star on the lunar limb as measured counter-clockwise from the zenith. Sea level is assumed due to the variance in altitude between plotted points. Linear interpolation would be insufficient for intermediate longitudes, but quadratic interpolation should get you close. However, please feel free to reply within this thread to learn the data that go with any specific longitudes and altitudes (above sea level) you provide – that includes requests for more info on the Antares occultation. 

13:29:57 UT - ZA 239.0° 

W 125° – N 48.12053° 

Pacific Ocean, 22 kilometers west of Ozette, WA 

13:37:00 UT - ZA 237.7° 

W 120° – N 44.71127° 

4 kilometers southeast of Waldron, OR 

13:46:22 UT - ZA 234.9° 

W 115° – N 40.72973° 

5 kilometers southeast of Clover, NV 

13:58:37 UT - ZA 229.7° 

W 110° – N 36.13305° 

Navajo Indian Reservation, 6 km SW of Blue Gap, AZ

 

14:13:58 UT - ZA 220.6° 

W 105° – N 30.99516° 

16 kilometers west of Van Horn, TX 

14:31:43 UT - ZA 206.4° 

W 100° – N 25.62933° 

5 kilometers north of Cadereyta Jimenez, Mexico.