In the low morning sky of Wednesday May 17, the waning Moon will pass so close to distant Jupiter (only 3/4 of a degree north of it, as seen from the center of the Earth) that it will occult – that is, hide – the planet.
See the end note about enlarging illustrations.
The path from within which this occultation can be seen passes across North America and the north of Europe.
This illustration from the “Occultations” section of Astronomical Calendar 2023 shows the Earth as seen from the Moon. On the right is the Moon as seen from the center of the Earth, with the track of Jupiter passing it.
For most of the occultation track on Earth, the Moon-Jupiter conjunction happens after sunrise. So what you can try to see before sunrise, in the bright low sky, will be the bright pinprick of Jupiter just to the left of the slender crescent Moon. At the time and location of our scene, they are about 3° above the horizon.
What might be the most interesting feature is the “earthlight” that makes the rest of the Moon faintly visible at stages like this. As Leonardo da Vinci realized, it is sunlight reflected back toward the Moon from the brilliant “full” Earth.
Stop looking before the Sun explodes into view!
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ILLUSTRATIONS in these posts are made with precision but have to be inserted in another format. You may be able to enlarge them on your monitor. One way: right-click, and choose “View image” or “Open image in new tab”, then enlarge. Or choose “Copy image”, then put it on your desktop, then open it. On an iPad or phone, use the finger gesture that enlarges (spreading with two fingers, or tapping and dragging with three fingers). Other methods have been suggested, such as dragging the image to the desktop and opening it in other ways.
Around 2 am last night I got up to pee. The sky was completely overcast with thick low stratus. I abandoned any hope of seeing the occultation and turned off the alarm. I walked up the hill after breakfast. The clouds had retreated west and the Sun was shining. Beautiful views across the bay to Mount Diablo, although Mount Tamalpais was hidden by fog and low clouds. Angry crows harassing a red-tailed hawk. The hawk eventually flew a short distance away, then resumed hovering in the wind watching for mice and voles. Swallows doing acrobatics. Not too many dogs today. Sorry, no astronomy content in this comment.
What need of stars when there are swallows!
Here in San Francisco, the Moon will rise at 4:47 am PDT, nautical dawn 4:53, Callisto emerges from occultation 5:05, Ganymede emerges from occultation 5:09, and Jupiter (with Europa transiting and Io about to transit) starting 5:16 and fully emerged by 5:18. All near Mare Crisium on the Moon’s dark limb. I’ll set the alarm for 4:00 to walk up Bernal Hill with my little spotting scope. The weather forecast is for mostly cloudy skies, and the Moon will be only 5 degrees above the nominal horizon when Jupiter emerges. I don’t expect to see Jupiter and his moons emerge from behind the Moon, but at least I’ll have a nice walk. The birds have been happy lately, and the dogs are always happy to be out with their humans and their dog friends.
I’m trying to put all that merry picture together in my mind, with a soundtrack.