Indian Institute of Astrophysics releases video of moon occulting Antares

The last such occultation of Antares, which was visible from India, was on February 5 this year. The next one will be in June 2027.

The Bengaluru-based Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) has filmed the passing of the moon in front of Antares, a bright red star.

The moon passed in front of Antares on April 27, hiding it for roughly 40 minutes. IIA said that this event was visible only from southern India. IIA filmed the event from its Bengaluru campus using a camera on an 8-inch telescope.

While moving in its orbit roughly once a month, the moon will occasionally occult, or hide, bright stars that are behind, and sometimes, even planets. This happens now and then for the star Antares (Jyeshtha), which is the brightest star in the constellation of Scorpius. Since the moon is relatively close to the Earth, such occultations will be visible only from some locations on the globe, similar to why a solar eclipse is seen only from a particular part of the globe.

The last such occultation of Antares, which was visible from India, was on February 5 this year. The next one will be in June 2027. However, the occultation of the planet Saturn by the moon can be seen from India on July 24, and again on October 14 in 2024.

As seen from Bengaluru, Antares disappeared behind the bright side of the gibbous moon around 1.13 a.m. and reappeared at the darker side around 1.53 a.m. IIA has a video of the disappearance and reappearance. In the videos, the telescope is tracking Antares, and the relative motion of the moon is also clearly visible. The shaking of the image is due to winds buffeting the telescope, and the shimmering of the image is due to the Earth’s atmosphere.