Iran13 September, 20262 min read
Iran Sees Moon Pass in Front of Venus in Daytime Occultation Monday
This article is an automated aggregation of coverage from news outlets. Our editorials offer in-depth analysis curated by the NewsCord team.
Moon occult Venus, passing between Earth and Venus, briefly concealing Venus in daylight. Event lasts about 84 minutes and requires optical aid to view from Jordan.
Daytime Venus occultation
Iran is set to see a daytime “Daily Occultation of the Moon and Venus” as the Moon passes in front of Venus, with the event described as occurring on Monday, 23 Shahrivar 1405. In Tehran, the occultation is said to start around 13:59 and end around 14:53, while the article says the exact start and end times vary by city and must be checked for an observer’s geographic location.
The piece also says Venus will have an apparent magnitude of around −4.5 and that the Moon will be only about 12 percent illuminated, with the Moon appearing as a thin crescent. It adds that, if weather is favorable and the sky is clear, Venus could be visible even with the naked eye, but it recommends using a telescope for precise timing of the occultation’s start and end.
Different shapes across Iran
The article says the occultation does not have the same appearance everywhere in Iran, with parts of the northeast described as showing an “occultation with a scratch.” It quotes Khosrow Jafarizadeh explaining: “In these regions, Venus’ apparent path passes near the Moon’s edge, and an observer can, with a telescope, witness part of Venus’ disk vanish behind the Moon’s edge.”
Jafarizadeh is also quoted saying the occultation’s shape varies across the country, and that in parts of North Khorasan, Razavi Khorasan, and South Khorasan provinces and a small part of Semnan it occurs in a “scratched” form. The same interview says the occultation duration can increase moving from northeast to southwestern Iran, and that in some areas it can reach about 80 minutes.
Where it won’t occur
The article says the occultation is visible in many parts of Iran, but that in parts of the northeast, including Mashhad and Bojnord, the occultation will not occur. It advises observers to study the occultation area map and city timing, because it says a single time cannot be applied to all of Iran.
Jafarizadeh is quoted defining an occultation as “a phenomenon in which, from the viewpoint of a terrestrial observer, one celestial object is temporarily hidden behind another object.” The piece also frames the event’s scientific importance by saying the Moon’s limb features and irregularities can influence the exact shape and timing of Venus’ hiding and re-emergence.