Caoimhín's Content

Today we are yet again looking forward into the coming month of June. Of course, we are very close to June now, so we’re not looking too far into the future, just forward to the 13th of June. Just like the piece before last, we are looking forward to see an event but that has been indicated to me by someone who watches the YouTube videos. We’re going to take a quick look over into the western sky at sunset just to see if we can see anything involving the Moon here from Ireland, which we cannot do at sunset. We will have Mercury, Jupiter and Venus at sunset on this date. Removing the ground reveals the Moon, on the other side of the Sun.

This means that the Moon will be visible at sunrise, so we’ll move forward to sunrise to see if we can catch what we are supposed to catch. Based on the location of the Moon relative to the Sun, they are pretty close together, it looks like that from here in Ireland with the angle at which we see the Sun rising, it’s going to be pretty difficult for us to see anything close to the Moon at sunrise. We can see the Moon, but it’s going to be difficult for us to see any stars in the sky with it, simply because the glow of sunset is so prominent. We’re looking at a little after 4 o’clock, 4:15 in the morning. We’ll move back a little bit earlier, it’s still difficult for us to see any stars from our location here in Ireland, but taking a very close look at just above the horizon, the Pleiades are there. This is what we’re looking for, an occultation of the Pleiades by the Moon and it doesn’t look like we’re going to be able to see it from here in Ireland.

We need to move forward in time to bring the Crescent Moon and the Pleiades together, so this is going to occur while it is daytime for us here in Ireland. We can follow it if we get rid of the atmosphere and eventually we get an occultation of the Pleiades by the Moon. The Moon is only covering a small portion of the Pleiades, but the Moon is definitely passing the Pleiades. With the Moon being a narrow crescent, it won’t contribute too much light. Usually, if the Full Moon or the nearly Full Moon occults the Pleiades, or even has a close conjunction with the Pleiades, the light of the Moon blocks out some of the Pleiades. Especially in a light polluted sky it becomes very difficult to see the Seven Sisters with the added light of the Moon. Luckily, with the Moon being such a narrow crescent, it won’t contribute too much light. However, when the Moon is this kind of narrow crescent, that means it’s pretty close to the Sun, which means the Pleiades, definitely, from latitudes like ours here in Ireland, are going to be blocked out by the glow of the Sun regardless of the presence of the Moon.

We’ve moved forward to the afternoon for us here in Ireland, so if we bring back the atmosphere, the occultation occurs high in the west, with the Sun nearby. The crescent Moon isn’t even visible because it is too narrow of a crescent. All the same, the occultation is happening. We don’t get to see it from here in Ireland but thankfully a viewer of the videos commented a location where this is visible. Based on the way this occultation is, I’d say it would be visible from a reasonably broad area, but we have been given specific instructions as to where to look. We’re going to 39° 9′ 53” North, so not too far south of our location. In longitude we’re traveling much further, which makes sense because this is occurring for us close to 4 o’clock in the day, we’re going to have to travel pretty far around the world to put ourselves back to a sunrise sky. We’re going to 122° 54′ 38” west. That puts us on the northwest coast of North America, up in nearly in the Pacific Northwest, around Northern California.

That is closer to the equator than we are here in Ireland, though not by much in terms of astronomy. It is enough for the Pleiades to be visible, they are a little bit visible even from a city sky just as the occultation is happening. Just as the Sun is rising and the Moon sliding right in front of the Pleiades. From the city with the naked eye, especially given how low in the sky the Pleiades are, it is going to be difficult to see them. If we pop out to a countryside sky, then the Pleiades should be nice and clear. The crescent Moon is only a narrow crescent, so it’s not producing so much light as to obscure the Pleiades like a Full Moon would. The Moon slides in front of the Pleiades, or the Seven Sisters, reaching occultation just as the Sun is getting bright enough to block the Pleiades from view. Thanks to the commenter who indicated where this would be visible from, this does seem to be the best place to see it. From this location, the Moon is visible next to the Pleiades and then in front of the Pleiades. However, I believe this should matter more in the case of longitude rather than latitude, but then again, there’s not much more land at this longitude. If we moved further north, then the angle at which the Sun was rising would make this more difficult to see. Let’s check that first before we go anywhere else. We’ll move into Canada and bring the Sun back down to rising. From further North, the sky is essentially bright for the entire time that the Moon is above the horizon. That means we’re not going to get to see the Pleiades while the Sun is rising, so no visible occultation.

We’ll try to stay at about the right longitude and come down in latitude. This puts us off the coast of Central America. We’ll turn back a bit closer to the east, that is where everything should rise, now that we are closer to the equator, such as Saturn and Mars ahead of the Moon. The Moon then rises, and it is rising with the Pleiades, but it does seem that the Moon is now not passing in front of the Pleiades. We may be at slightly the wrong longitude. We might just be a little bit off, and it seems like a little bit is enough to make a difference here. We’ll change our location, moving over to about 121° west, which should hopefully keep things visible for a little bit longer. it does so the Moon is just about occulting the Pleiades from that longitude as well. It does look like, although this is visible over a reasonably large amount of the Earth, only a very small amount of the Earth, where this is visible, actually has land on it.

We will hop back to around the Pacific Coast of North America, but we’ll try and go a little bit lower, to a slightly different location, closer to Baja California. From there, the Moon is still continuing to occult the Pleiades. So it looks like anywhere along the Pacific or West Coast of the United States, this is going to be visible. It should be visible, at least in the United States and maybe a little bit across the border into Canada, but as you move further north in Canada the angle of the ecliptic at sunrise will block it out. This is really only visible from a fairly small area. There’s only some land around 122° west, as we move south the land starts to deviate away from the line of longitude where this is visible. This is an event that I probably wouldn’t have known about if I wasn’t informed by a commenter. The Pacific Northwest coast of North America is so far from where I am that I may not have known about this unless I was told. Again, this is from the countryside, so we will very quickly pop back into a city sky just to compare what this view is more likely to be like for anyone who is actually lucky enough to catch it.

Given how difficult the Pleiades can be to see from the city, especially extincted by the atmosphere, I would recommend using binoculars to check this out. Even from a city, at sunrise on the 13th of June, the Crescent Moon will be occulting the Pleiades, although only a couple of the sisters will be visible. I hope that a few of you out there get a chance to see this in real life. I won’t, as we demonstrated right at the start. This happens in the middle of the day for us here in Ireland. It still happens, it’s still technically happening all around the world, but just not visible to us. It is out there, we can just about see the Moon if we take a close look even though it is a very faint crescent, and the Pleiades are just behind it, getting occulted by it during the middle of the day for us.

I won’t get to see it, but I you you all have an idea of the event from this piece. If you did like this piece, then please do like it and if you enjoy this kind of content, please subscribe to this website and my YouTube channel. Thank you very much for reading and hopefully I’ll see you back here next time.