How often are planets occulted by the Moon?

The Moon passes through the ecliptic plane twice each lunar month so if a planet happens to be near one of these two 'nodes' of the lunar orbit it will be eclipsed. The timing and positioning has to be just right because the Moon travels very fast along its orbit, and it is only about 1/2 degree in diameter. Without looking at a planetary ephemeris, I would imagine that such an occultation happens probably no more than once a year, but for slow moving planets like Jupiter, Saturn and the rest of the outer planets, there are probably 'eclipse seasons' when several occultations over a period of one or more consecutive months would occur. Mars, and the outer planets also perform retrograde motions which would enhance the number of occultations over a period of a few months.

Here is a list of occultations by the Moon of planets between July 1996 and May, 1992:

Date                  Planet occulted
...........................................
3-21-96               Venus
7-12-96               Venus
6-26-95               Mercury
4-12-94               Venus
7-5-94                Mars
10-7-94               Jupiter
12-30-94              Jupiter
2-25-93               Venus
4-19-93               Venus
1-3-92                Mars
1-31-92               Venus
2-1-92                Uranus
3-27-92               Neptune
4-23-92               Neptune
5-20-92               Neptune
...........................................

Copyright 1997 Dr. Sten Odenwald
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