Lunar Occultation of Saturn Observing report

[lunator]

Here are my notes on the Moon-Saturn Occultation.

Where I was in SW London was right on the edge of the Occultation.

Location

51.565 N

0.277 W

Seeing 4/5

Transparency 4/5

The scopes used were my OO 8" F6 Newt for Afocal photography with the Fuji S5600 and my OMC140 for visual and timings and also some pics with the A607 Fuji compact.

I was using a 25mm ortho on the 8" giving a magnification of x48 and a 12.5mm ortho on the 140 giving x160.

For timing I used my stopwatch that I had synchronised to the Atomic clock (just google 'accurate time')

The night was clear and still, ideal for observation. The period between 02:00 & 02:30 the progress seemed to be very sedate but as Saturn & the Moon appeared in the same FOV of the OMC140 (about 1/3 degree) everything seemed to happen much faster.

1st contact was quite easy to spot but the 3rd-6th contacts were tricky and took as the Moon's brightness did wash out the view.

Saturn was only just occulted and I did try to see if the rings were visible along the Lunar edge but I did not observe anything.

The re-emergence of Saturn seemed quite sudden and the emergence was where I was looking which was a relief.

1st Contact 02:42:04 (North pole of the disc)

2nd contact 02:42:06 (East tip of the rings)

3rd Contact 02:45:25 (South Pole - disc fully occulted)

4th Contact 02:46:20 (West tip of rings - Saturn fully occulted)

5th Contact 02:52:25 (Tip of Western rings )

6th Contact 02:52:50 (South pole of Saturn)

7th Contact 02:56:55 (North Pole )

8th Contact 02:58:30 (Tip of Eastern rings)

All in all a fantastic experience and I look forward to the occultation of Regulus on the 30th which is a Friday :D

Cheers

Ian

Heres one pic of the event