Watch the Moon Photobomb Uranus in Slooh Occultation Webcast Today

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Uranus will appear to slip behind the moon on June 11, 2015 in a lunar occultation. It will be visible from southern Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific, where the local time will be June 12.
Uranus will appear to slip behind the moon on June 11, 2015 in a lunar occultation. It will be visible from southern Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific, where the local time will be June 12. (Image credit: Starry Night Software)

The planet Uranus will slip behind the moon today (June 11) in a celestial event known as an occultation, and you have a chance to watch it live online.

The online Slooh Community Observatory will stream live telescope views of Uranus as it is blocked by the moon in a free webcast at 3 p.m. EDT (1900 GMT) that can be seen at the Slooh website: http://www.slooh.com.

You can also watch the Uranus webcast on Space.com, courtesy of Slooh. The webcast will feature live views from Slooh's partners in Australia, since the Uranus occultation will only be visible from there and New Zealand.

"Whether we call it an occultation, eclipse or photobomb, it's a very cool event when the moon covers up that strange, green often mispronounced world," Slooh astronomer Bob Berman said in a statement. "Watching Uranus telescopically vanish behind the detailed sunlit portion of the moon and then suddenly emerge from the lunar dark side should be pretty dramatic."

Berman and Slooh host Erid Edelman will provide live commentary of the occultation of Uranus. Viewers can submit questions about the event live on Twitter using the hashtag #UranusPhotobomb.

While observers outside of Australia and New Zealand will not be able to see the occultation of Uranus, they may be able to see Uranus near the crescent moon in a telescope, depending on local weather and night sky light pollution conditions.

"This presents an excellent opportunity to spot this distant ice giant with a pair of binoculars or a small telescope," Slooh representatives wrote in a skywatching alert.

Editor's note: If you observe Uranus near the moon in a telescope and capture an amazing view that you'd like to share with Space.com, you can send in photos and comments to managing editor Tariq Malik at: spacephotos@space.com.

Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow him @tariqjmalik and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

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Tariq Malik
Tariq Malik
Editor-in-Chief

Tariq is the Editor-in-Chief of Space.com and joined the team in 2001, first as an intern and staff writer, and later as an editor. He covers human spaceflight, exploration and space science, as well as skywatching and entertainment. He became Space.com's Managing Editor in 2009 and Editor-in-Chief in 2019. Before joining Space.com, Tariq was a staff reporter for The Los Angeles Times covering education and city beats in La Habra, Fullerton and Huntington Beach. In October 2022, Tariq received the Harry Kolcum Award for excellence in space reporting from the National Space Club Florida Committee. He is also an Eagle Scout (yes, he has the Space Exploration merit badge) and went to Space Camp four times as a kid and a fifth time as an adult. He has journalism degrees from the University of Southern California and New York University. You can find Tariq at Space.com and as the co-host to the This Week In Space podcast with space historian Rod Pyle on the TWiT network. To see his latest project, you can follow Tariq on Twitter @tariqjmalik.