Moon and Elnath

StarDate

There’s a season for everything, from football to Broadway to allergies. There are seasons in the heavens as well. And the next act in one of those seasons plays out early tomorrow: an occultation by the Moon of the star Elnath – the tip of one of the horns of Taurus.

An occultation takes place when one object covers up another. The Moon occults a few fairly bright stars every month. And the occultations occur in seasons.

That’s because the Moon’s orbit is tilted with respect to the ecliptic – the Sun’s path across the sky. The Moon moves back and forth across the ecliptic, allowing it to occult any star within a few degrees of that path. But its position relative to any particular star changes from year to year. As a result, occultations occur in bunches – in seasons.

Now, the Moon is in the middle of its occultation season with Elnath. The season began in 2023, and continues into 2027. Because of the different angles to the Moon and star, and the short length of each event, only a few of the occultations are visible from a particular location.

This occultation will be visible from the far-southwestern United States. Elnath and the Moon rise into good view after midnight, with the star to the lower left of the Moon. The Moon will slip toward Elnath as they climb higher. From most of the country, the Moon and star will just miss each other – a “seasonal” encounter in the dawn sky.

Script by Damond Benningfield