Sri Lanka to witness rare lunar occultation of Saturn next week

The Lunar Occultation of Saturn which is a rare astronomical event will be visible to Sri Lanka just after midnight on July 24, 2024.

The Arthur C Clarke Institute for Modern Technologies said that the event will start at approximately 00:50 a.m. on 25 July, 2024 and will be visible to the naked eye by looking at the Moon starting around 00:40 a.m. on July 25, from Sri Lanka.

Furthermore, Arthur C Clarke Institute added that a telescope or a pair of binoculars will enable the observation of the occultation-the disappearance and reappearance of Saturn, more clearly.

In an occultation, one celestial body passes in front of another, blocking its view. When the Moon moves in front of Saturn, obscuring it from view on Earth, this event is known as the lunar occultation of Saturn. 

The Moon will obscure Saturn for approximately one hour and twenty minutes, and this phenomenon will only be visible from certain regions on Earth. In Sri Lanka, the time and duration of visibility for this event will slightly differ by location, it said.

The next similar lunar occultation of Saturn visible from Sri Lanka will be on April 24, 2037.