Christmas night 2015 brings the Full Moon, a lunar occulation and the planet Jupiter to test out your new telescope / binoculars

(Posted 23 December 2015) Getting a new telescope or binoculars on Christmas day and want to know what you can look at that night to test them out? By coincidence, there will be a lunar occulation on Christmas night which you can look at with your new optical instrument. The term occultation refers to the Moon’s orbital motion temporarily blocking an object from view. In this case, it will be a 5th magnitude star 71 Orionis (located in the constellation Orion).

That was the good news. Unfortunately the Moon will be Full on Christmas Day (at 9:11 pm AEST / 10:11 pm AEDT) meaning that watching the occulatation will be like staring into a blinding spotlight which is at it’s brightest.

My astronomy program shows that 71 Orionis will disappear behind the Moon at 8:21 pm AEST /9:21 pm AEDT and reappear from behind the Moon at 9:34 pm AEST / 10:34 pm AEST. Use the two charts above to help you know where to look to observe this event.

If you are really keen to test out your telescope or binoculars, I would wait until Jupiter rises even later in the evening (after 11:40 pm AEST / 12:40 pm AEDT on 26 December 2015). Just look for a dazzling star low on the Eastern horizon (see above chart). The view will be terrible as you will be looking through lots of atmosphere but will be able to say you have seen your first planet through your new optical equipment.