Observers in the British Isles with an unobscured view of the southwest horizon should direct their telescopes at the setting 4-day-old crescent Moon by 7:40pm, for if skies are clear you may get a chance to see magnitude +3.9 star gamma (γ) Librae (aka Zuben Elakrab in Arabic) slip behind the darkened lunar hemisphere. The time at which this occultation occurs is just before 7:55pm in London, or 7:45pm in Edinburgh (all times quoted in this article are in British Summer Time). AN graphic by Ade Ashford/Stellarium.A waxing crescent Moon sliding serenely toward the horizon in evening twilight is always a pleasant sight to behold, but observers in the UK watching the 4-day-old Moon through a telescope around 40 minutes after sunset on Sunday, 24 September have an additional treat in store. The lunar crescent lies in the zodiacal constellation of Libra (the Scales) and passes in front of naked-eye star gamma (γ) Librae, also known by its Arabic name of Zuben Elakrab, soon after 7:45pm BST — though the precise time depends on where you live in the British Isles.
For observers in the London area, the magnitude +3.9 star winks out behind the darkened lunar hemisphere shortly before 7:55pm, while skywatchers closer to Edinburgh will see the occultation occur at 7:45pm BST. For observers nearer the centre of the British Isles, the event happens close to 7:49pm when the 20 percent illuminated Moon lies just 9 degrees — barely the span of a fist held at arm’s length — above the southwest horizon.
Gamma Librae lies about 160 light-years from Earth. Interestingly, it is also a double star, though its magnitude +11 companion some 42½ arcseconds distant will not be visible owing to the glare from the adjacent Moon and atmospheric extinction so close to the horizon. Furthermore, the star’s reappearance at the bright lunar limb close to 8:55pm BST is unlikely to be seen so close to moonset.
Now that planet Saturn is effectively lost in the dusk twilight for UK-based observers, you may be wondering what has happened to the other four bright naked-eye planets. Far from disappearing, they have just transferred to the morning sky. From 8—11 October, the waning crescent Moon acts as a guide to Venus, Mars, Jupiter then Mercury in the eastern dawn sky.
All five of the bright naked-eye planets are observable in the pre-dawn sky from about the third week of January 2016, particularly if one lives south of the equator. But even from the UK, you can get to view the spectacle if you time it right — and the weather obliges! The last time that Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn appeared in the same sky was 11 years ago.
Many will be looking skyward to see terrestrial pyrotechnics this Bonfire Night, but if you own a small telescope and can escape the light pollution, you can see the waning gibbous Moon hide three naked-eye stars in Taurus on the night of 5—6 November, culminating in first-magnitude star Aldebaran in the small hours of Monday morning.
