In the UK Monday evening (1st December 2008) at about 17:15 Venus began to appeared from behind the crescent moon and end it’s occultation by The Moon. Cloud had significantly impaired my view of the start of the occultation and I foolishly gave up on the hope of being able to observe anything worth while. Driving to a nearby shopping centre the clouds moved on (hopefully not to where you were viewing) and unveiled a truly beautiful sight of Venus as it came back into view from behind the Moon. To me it looked like a diamond on a ring.
Unfortunately I didn’t get to take any images but here’s one from Astronomy Picture Of the Day (APOD).
Do you have any links to images of the Moon’s occultation of Venus? If so please leave a comment; good quality images will be linked from the body of this post.
Until the next post… Clear Skies!
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Could anyone please tell me when the next occultation of Venus by The Moon, visible in the UK, will be?
Is there any person or organization that e-mails lists of up-coming astronomical events?
Kindest regards, Robert.
Hi Robert and thanks for your question.
It looks like the next occultation of Venus is not going to be for some time; sources believe the next Venus occultation to be on 6th April 2016, then 19th June 2020, then 10th January 2032. I’ve not checked these dates out myself though.
There are free software applications LOW, OCCULT, and Occult Watcher that you can use to build up your own schedule of occultations; again I’ve not had time at the moment to use these so can’t personally vouch for there quality.
Not sure where in the UK you are based but here is a schedule for occultations visible from East Anglia.
Steve