Forthcoming occultations of Ruby Star by the Moon visible in the British Isles
The star lies 4.6 degrees off the ecliptic, making it a candidate for routine occultations by the Moon and (extremely rarely) by one of the brighter planets. The next time when the Moon will pass in front of Ruby Star as seen from a habitable region of the Earth is going to be on October 23, 2013. At that time, the occultation “shadow” will track across the extreme northern parts of Siberia, moving westward into the arctic wastes of northern Scandinavia. Thereafter, the star will be occulted every month as seen from at least one populated region.
An approximate ephemeris projection of the apparent motion of the Moon[1] leads to the following dates for the next window of lunar occultations visible here in the British Isles:-
December 17, 2013, 06h 44m UT
The star could well graze the lower limb of the almost full moon, seen from southern England. The chances of an outright occultation improves the further north you are located within the British Isles.
February 9, 2014, 16h 50m UT
Occultation occuring in daylight. The Sun will not sink below the horizon until 17h 00m, making this a challenging observation for small telescopes to sight the fourth magnitude red star against a bright sky backdrop.
March 9, 2014, 01h 50m UT
The upper limb of the half moon will slide less than 0.5 degrees south of the star, making this a spectacular conjunction.
November 6, 2017, 23h 50m UT
A bright-limb occultation by the gibbous moon.
December 31, 2017, 22h 00m UT
An occultation through the centre of a near full moon’s disk, visible across the length and breadth of the British Isles
March 23, 2018, 23h 00m UT
A spectacular dark-limb occultation by the moon at first quarter
April 20, 2018, 04h UT
A centre-of-disk occultation, the star disappearing at the dark limb of a crescent moon, visible in the strong morning twilight throughout the British Isles.
This will be the last favourable occultation observable in the UK in this particular cycle. The next time the star can be observed to be favourably occulted in our neck of the woods will not be until January 13th, 2033!
References
[1]Ahad, A., September 2008, “Predicted Lunar Occultations of Ruby Star up till 2020”
