A series of occultations of Uranus continues, the first of which we could observe on the night of September 14-15. On the evening of December 5, the Moon will occult the planet again, and this phenomenon will be perfectly visible from all over Ukraine. Now the occultation will take place with the dark lunar edge, which will make the observations even more convenient.
Uranus has a luster on the verge of being visible to the naked eye, so next to the bright lunar disk it can only be seen with a sufficiently powerful telescope with a lens diameter of at least 100 mm and magnification of at least 50 times. At this magnification, it is already possible to notice the planet’s disk, which has a diameter of 3.7 arcseconds. The Moon overcomes such a distance in its movement along the celestial sphere in about 7 and a half seconds. This is how long its “creeping” on Uranus will last. The appearance of the planet will last the same amount, but it will be much more difficult to observe it, since it will appear from behind the illuminated edge of our natural moon.
In Kyiv, the occultation of Uranus will take place at about 06:42:50 p.m GMT+2, and the opening will take place at 07:50:30 p.m. For different parts of the city, the exact time may differ by a few seconds. The corresponding moments for Lviv are 06:39:15 p.m. (closing), 07:42:15 p.m. (opening), for Kharkiv — 06:45:25 p.m. (closing), 07:56:30 p.m. (opening), for Odesa — 06:34:50 p.m. (closing), 07:44:20 p.m. (opening). During this phenomenon, the Moon will be 35-50° above the eastern horizon, that is, it will be located in the sky very fortunately for observations. At about 30° to the left of it, a bright reddish Mars will be visible, approaching the opposition, during which it will also briefly hide behind the lunar disk.
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