Occultation Pleiades 30 July 2024.

Morning sky on Tuesday, July 30 as seen from Adelaide at 5:10 ACST, (click to embiggen). The moon is just about to cover the star Celaeno in the Pleiades. The inset is the binocular view of the moon at this time (click to embiggen).	Morning sky on Tuesday, July 3 as seen from Melbourne at 6:05 AEST, (click to embiggen). The moon is just about to cover the star Taygeta in the Pleiades. The inset is the binocular view of the moon at this time (click to embiggen).	Evening sky on Tuesday, July 3 as seen from Perth at 3:03 AWST, (click to embiggen). The moon is just about to cover the star Celaeno in the Pleiades. The inset is the binocular view of the moon at this time.  (click to embiggen).

On the early morning 30th the waning cresent Moon will pass over (occult) some bright stars in the iconic Pleiades cluster. From western Australia and central Australia the most stars will be covered. Eastern states see only one bright star covered.

While potentially visible to the unaided eye, this is best seen with binoculars or a telescope. While a waning crescent, the Moon is still bright enough to wash out all but the brightest members of the Pleiades. Fortunately, for most of Australia at least one of the bright stars in the cluster, Taygeta (19 Tau, mag 4.3) are covered. Perth and the west coast gets the best view, with Darwin, Alice Springs (and places between) and Adelaide being next best. The east coast is in twilight when the moon moves off the Pleiades.

Timings for the covering of Celaeno (16 Tau), Taygeta (19 Tau) and Sterope (21 Tau) are give below for selected cities.  Similar views will be seen at nearby locations (e.g. Fremantle and Perth, Alice Springs and Darwin)

	Celaeno DB	Celaeno RD	Taygeta DD	Taygeta RD	Sterope DB	Sterope RD
Adelaide ACST	5:10	5:43	5:17	6:26	5:43	*-
Brisbane AEST	-	-	-	-	-	-
Canberra AEST	-	-	6:14	*-	-	-
Darwin   ACST	4:38	6:00	5:26	6:14	5:50	-*
Hobart   AEST	-	-	6:24	6:45	6:47	-
Melbourne AEST	-	-	6:05	*-	6:32	*-
Perth AWST	3:03	4:09	3:26	4:28	3:47	4:53
Sydney  AEST	-	-	6:19	*-	-	-

DB - disappear bright limb, RD - reappear dark limb.

* Occurs in twilight

It’s best to set up around 30 minutes before the occultation so you can get oriented in the sky and don’t miss the beginning while fussing with equipment. 

Cloud cover predictions can be found at SkippySky.

Here is the near-real time satellite view of the clouds (day and night) http://satview.bom.gov.au/