Jupiter hides behind the moon Oct. 6: times, where to look

Jupiter slips behind the moon before dawn on Oct. 6, and much of North America can watch it happen. Space.com reports the event is a lunar occultation, meaning the moon moves across our line of sight to a more distant object. The crescent moon will be only 20% illuminated, and Jupiter will stay hidden for about an hour before it reappears from behind the moon's dark, Earth-lit limb.

Best viewing is in the eastern and central eastern U.S. and parts of southern Canada, where the whole event is visible. If you're outside that zone, you're not out of luck: the gas giant will still sit close beside the crescent moon after local moonrise, weather permitting.

Space.com's skywatching columnist Joe Rao notes that Jupiter occultations happen somewhere in the world fairly often, but a given location under a dark sky sees one about once every 13 years on average.

Here are the local disappearance and reappearance times for the Oct. 6 event, based on predictions from the International Occultation Timing Association and listed by Space.com:

• Boston: 4:26 a.m. EDT, then 5:29 a.m. EDT
• New York: 4:23 a.m. EDT, then 5:27 a.m. EDT
• Washington, DC: 4:20 a.m. EDT, then 5:24 a.m. EDT
• Atlanta: 4:15 a.m. EDT, then 5:16 a.m. EDT
• Miami: 4:20 a.m. EDT, then 5:09 a.m. EDT
• Chicago: 3:22 a.m. CDT, then 4:17 a.m. CDT
• Winnipeg: 3:45 a.m. CDT, then 4:03 a.m. CDT

In Denver, Jupiter is below the horizon when the disappearance happens, but the reappearance should be visible at about 3:11 a.m. MDT. Farther west, the event is already finished by moonrise across Washington, Oregon, California and most of Arizona. There, skywatchers can still catch Jupiter and the moon in a striking close pairing, so it's worth setting the alarm.

• Joe Rao
• Jupiter
• lunar occultation
• moon
• skywatching