In a rare spectacle in space, the moon will eclipse a bunch of bright stars
In a rare spectacle in space, the moon will eclipse a bunch of bright stars
Trust the galaxy to come up with the most amazing of visual delights. Tonight, the moon will come in front of Pleiades, or the seven sisters, a cluster of relatively young stars located in the constellation of Taurus. It is among the nearest star clusters to Earth, one most obvious to the naked eye in the night sky. The spectacle can be seen from just about anywhere in the city with the help of optical instruments like binoculars, spotting scope, small refracting scopes and a telescope. All of these instruments will show the moon sitting pretty in front of Pleiades.
What exactly is Pleiades Occultation?
Imagine the moon covering the sun to bring darkness in broad daylight. What would that event be? Eclipse, you would say, but is it really an eclipse? Give it a thought. So, then, what is this event? In astronomy, they call it an 'occultation', which means that a celestial body is directly coming in front and blocking the light from another body. Solar eclipse is a perfect example of occultation. Moon, our nearest neighbor, keeps coming in front of so many stars, that each night one can see numerous occultations. So one does not have to wait for a solar eclipse to happen to see an occultation.
Now the whole talk about occultation goes to an interesting juncture where the moon comes in front of a group of stars and in the span of a few hours, you see 10-15 stars being occulted. As the occultation can and only happen with stars and planets lying on the path of ecliptic, some interesting events occur. Pleiades star cluster happens to be in Taurus and provides us humans a rare treat in visual astronomy when the moon comes in front of it.
Occultations have been used to find out more about the celestial mechanics. The discovery of the Uranian Rings was made by astronomers James L. Elliot, Edward W. Dunham, and Douglas J. Mink on March 10, 1977, using the Kuiper Airborne Observatory, through one such event. Similarly, observations of occultation by Neptune were observed by UP state Observatory, Nainital and they confirmed the presence of rings around Neptune.
When: Tonight, 7 pm
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