Occultations

Ashish Mishra Physical sciences (4 semester)

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Occultations vs. transits and eclipses

Occultations : an apparently larger body passes in front of an apparently smaller one Transits: when an apparently smaller body passes in front of an apparently larger one Eclipses : occurs when a body disappears or partially disappears from view, either by an occultation, as with a solar eclipse, or by passing into the shadow of another body, as with a lunar eclipse

All these are the effects of a syzygy : a straight line configuration of three celestial bodies. Any stars with an ecliptic latitude of less than about 6.5 degrees may be occulted by moon Three first magnitude stars that are sufficiently close to the ecliptic that they may be occulted by the Moon and by planets Regulus, Spica and Antares.

Grazing lunar occultation : one of the two edges of the moon parallel to its orbital path appears to just touch or graze the object as the moon goes by within a mile or two of the edge of an occultation's predicted path, referred to as its northern or southern limit When this happens, a properly positioned observer will see the grazed object disappear and reappear, possibly several times, as mountains and valleys on the edge of the moon pass in front of it.

Northern limit

Southern limit Graze lines or limit lines Observers stationed along these lines will see a grazing occultation.

- Caused by the lunar topography and is dependent upon :

Alignment of the observer Moons limb Star

Moon passed just in front of saturn, barely blocking some of the rings and the side of the planet! a grazing lunar occultation!

Titan Occultation

Titan Occultation

Passed in front of two stars Light from the star drops gradually : thick atmosphere The peak at the center of the light curve represents the bright flash occurring at the very middle of the occultation. This is due to the fact that Titan's atmosphere acts as a lens, making the light emitted by the star passing behind converge into a focal point and produce the flash.

Radio Occultation: Unraveling < 2 Saturn's Rings

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Application :

Star's disappearances or reappearances may occur in steps, indicating a previously undiscovered close double star that cannot be resolved by direct observations. Lunar topography Timing of lunar occultations angular diameters of stars effective temperatures of those stars.

Occultation by planets

In 1959, Venus occulted Regulus. Uranus' rings were first discovered when that planet occulted a star in 1977. On the evening of July 2-July 3, 1989, Saturn passed in front of the 5th magnitude star 28 Sagittarii. Pluto occulted stars in 1988, 2002, and 2006, allowing its tenuous atmosphere to be studied.

Occultations by asteroids

occur nearly every day over the world size and position of asteroids are determined much more precisely than can be done by any other means A cross-sectional profile of the shape of an asteroid can even be determined if a number of observers at different, nearby, locations observe the occultation estimate the diameter of trans-Neptunian objects such as (55636) 2002 TX300, 28978 Ixion, and 20000 Varuna. Preliminary results of a 6 November 2010 occultation by the dwarf planet Eris of a magnitude 17 star in the constellation of Cetus placed an upper limit on Eris's diameter of 2320 km, making it almost the same size as Pluto

Double occultations

Such events are extremely rare and can be seen only from a small part of the world. The last event of such type was on April 23, 1998 when the moon occulted Venus and Jupiter simultaneously for observers on Ascension Island

Thank you