See how the moon crosses the Plejades for the last time this year on July 20th

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If you live somewhere in the adjacent US or Canada and a clear sky for early Sunday morning, July 20, you go outside after midnight and before the first light of dawn. Watch yourself in the Eastern Norto east only four days before the new phase and 23% and approach the Plejades star cluster gracefully to do a slim crescent moon. This will mark the third and last layout of the Pleijaden in 2025 and promise a very nice scene in a steadily kept binoculars or a small telescope.

At the beginning of this year there were two more encounters with Moon-Priades. On the evening of January 9th, an 82% Gibbous moon, which has grown, temporarily hid the pleiaades for parts of the USA, Canada and Central America, and in the night hours from February 5th to 6th a 61% moon went to the cluster. If you have caught one or both of the first two events (or if you haven’t done it), write down in your calendar to observe this last Mond-Priades rendezvous of the year.

In this upcoming case, you must either stay over the night (to wait for Moonrise that occur around 1:00 a.m. location) or present your alarm for the morning hours.

Since the moon will be a pretty, dwindling crescent moon, unlike a growing Gibbous in January and February, stars will first disappear along the bright mooncrescent.
You need at least one small telescope, because the binoculars will probably not be enough to follow stars in the last few minutes or seconds, since the blinding of the moon shakes it. But practically every telescope will enlarge enough to make the trick. Use the 50 -fold magnification, possibly more if your rifle scope has a firm holder that enables easy persecution.

About an hour later, the stars will reappear in a dramatic way behind the dark link of the moon: they suddenly seem to be “banging” as if someone had thrown a switch. Here the binoculars should cut off well, especially if you assemble it on a tripod, provided you observe exactly at the right moment.

In the Canadian maritime provinces and in the northeast of the United States, the advance of dawn will be a problem, since the eastern sky will brighten when the moon approaches the pleiaades. As a result, the disappearance of some stars is not visible because the sky will be too bright. Nevertheless, the view in binoculars of the crescent moon will sit at the top right of the star cluster.

The sky will be darker further west, but the moon and the pleiaades will be lower. This applies in particular to the most distant states and the Canadian province of British Columbia. Therefore, a clear and unimpeded view is recommended towards the east northeast.

Below you will find two schedules that give local circumstances for the disappearance and reappearance of the four brightest members of the Plejades that are octaged. The information is partly based on data generated by the International Occultation Timers Association (IOTA) and applies to fourteen US, two Canadian and a Mexican city. However, remember that many other stars that are not listed here are also associated.

When the disappearance or reappearing of a star during the Dawn Twilight takes place, the time is offered in time Italics. Also note that if the disappearance or re -diving of a star nearby or shortly after civil twilight starts (approximately 40 minutes before sunrise), it is assumed that the sky is probably too bright to see it easily. In addition, the moon could completely miss the star. In both cases, time is omitted. All times are in the local civilian period.

Certain times and zones of visibility

With the kind permission of IOTA, detailed predictive pages are available for each of the four brightest stars – Alcyone, AtlasElectra and Maia. This includes the disappearance of Universal Time (UT) and the reworking data as well as Mercator cards that show where every occult is visible.

For example from St. Louis, Missouri (in the central daylight, UTC – 5), Maia will disappear at 4:06 a.m. CDT and reappear at 4:51 a.m. CDT. At the moment of the recording, the sun will be about 11 degrees below the horizon, which means that Maia should reappear in a sky at dusk.

Top Telescope pick

Would you like to see the moon and the pleiaades together? The Celestron Nexstar 8se is ideal for beginners who want quality, reliable and fast views of heavenly objects. For a more detailed look at our Celestron Nexstar 8Se rating.

In addition to the schedule, a world map (Mercator projection) is provided, which shows the region in which the occultation is visible. The limits are in different colors. The cyan boundaries show the curves of the occasionally disappearance or the recording at Moonrise or Moon set. A continuous white line marks the nightly north and south border of the occult. A continuous blue line refers to the occult boundaries that occur during dusk, while a dotted red line is the occult limits that occur in daylight.

For Alcyone, the occultation takes place over a large part of the western USA for Atlas. Visibility occurs in the northwest of the USA, West Canada and Alaska. For Electra, visibility will go beyond a large part of the United States and Canada, while the Occultation of Maia will mainly be visible above the central and southern USA and Mexico.

Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York’s Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for Natural History MagazinePresent Heaven and telescope and other publications.