BRIGHT PLANET & ASTEROID OCCULTATIONS BY THE MOON FOR 2024


There is probably little new information that can be learned from occultations of major planets events in this age of space exploration, but they are still interesting to watch. Photometric records, possibly derived from video recordings, could be used to determine the sizes of asteroids, although timings of occultations of stars by minor planets give more accurate information. - D. Dunham.

Below are world maps, showing all the events for the planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn, Neptune, and minor planet Ceres.
The are no occultations of Jupiter or Uranus in 2024.

Following the world maps for are detailed predictions for events which are practical to observe. No occultations predictions are given for remote areas, nor are occultation predictions shown if the planet is too close to the sun time of the occultation.

Observers are strongly encouraged to download the free software Occult v4 to generate their own predictions. Occult has a short tutorial listed in the help file to get observers started using the software. Observers could also use their own planetarium type software (e.g. TheSky, SkySafari, Guide, Stellarium, etc), to get approximate times of the events.


The world map is a Mercator projection showing the basic circumstances of an occultation:

Where a line represent a feature of the event is located in the polar regions, remember that the Mercator projection gives rise to serious distortions in polar regions.

DD = disappearance on dark side; DB = disappearance on bright side; RD = Reappearance on dark side; RB = Reappearance on bright side

Note: Cities will be prefixed with their 2 letter country code. Those for the United States will also include the 2 letter state code after the city. For a complete listing of the 2 letter country codes used in the predictions please download this PDF file for reference.

How to convert the predicted time to your site location time using the A/B factor shown in the predictions


WORLD MAPS OF KNOWN OCCULTATIONS OF THE FOLLOWING PLANETS FOR 2024

Occultations of Mercury
Occultations of Venus
Occultations of Mars
Occultations of Saturn
Occultations of Neptune
Occultations of Ceres

PREDICTIONS FOR VISIBLE OCCULTATIONS FOR 2024

DATE PLANET MAG PH % ILL AREA
05 MAY 2024 Mars 1.1m DD 13- Madagascar
31 MAY 2024 Saturn 1.2m RD 43- s South America
01 JUN 2024 Neptune 7.9 RD 34- s South Africa, Madagascar
23 JUN 2024 Ceres 7.5m RD 98- e Canada, central & e USA, ne Mexico, Cuba, Caribbeans
27 JUN 2024 Saturn 1.1m RD 64- e Australia, New Zealand
28 JUN 2024 Neptune 7.9 DD 58+ nw South America
24 JUL 2024 Saturn 0.9m RD 84- se Asia
21 AUG 2024 Saturn 0.7m RD 97- n South America, w Africa Europe
21 AUG 2024 Neptune 7.8m RD 93- Europe, w Asia, n Africa, Middle East
17 SEP 2024 Saturn 0.6m DD 99+ w USA, w Canada, Hawaii
14 OCT 2024 Saturn 0.7m DD 89+ se Africa, s central Asia
15 OCT 2024 Neptune 7.8m DD 80+ Middle East, Asia
12 NOV 2024 Neptune 7.8m DD 80+ USA, e Canada, Greeland
08 DEC 2024 Saturn 1.0 DD 47+ Indonesia
09 DEC 2024 Neptune 7.9m DD 58+ ne Asia, Japan, Alaska
18 DEC 2024 Mars -0.9 RD 89- ne Canada, Greenland


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