Moon Occultation of Saturn 12 August 2019

[MarsG76]

Hello Astronomers,

On the 12th August, between 18:34 and 19:21 we had a occultation of Saturn by the moon.

Of course I couldn't miss out of such a event so I took the day of work and setup my gear so that I could simultaneously capture the event as well as observe it.

I had the SCT recording with the 618C while observing it in the dob... literally at high power it looked like a Saturn rise... massive lunar horizon filling the field of view with a big Saturn rising from under it, literally animated and visible slowly moving up... Looked amazing in the eyepiece... 

Photos or videos don't even come close to how good that looks live in the ep.

I had my eye on the eyepiece in the 14" Skywatcher during the occultation and recorded the start and finish times as soon as I noticed them:

 

Occultation Start 18:35.51 AEST

Reappearance Start: 19:19.37 AEST

Occultation Finish: 19:21.20 AEST

 

I stuffed up the first part video, the covering of Saturn because I still had iCap set to capturing a maximum of 5000 frames left from my planetary imaging, so at 25fps I barely got a 3.5 minute video that stopped just before the actual occultation started... yes I was kicking my self... but at least I watched it... I wasn't going to do the same mistake on the re appearance on the other side...

Sharing with you my photos and the video of the event... video is sped up to 400%.

Clear Skies.

MG

Edited August 16, 2019 by MarsG76

[Ruud]

Awesome!

[Stub Mandrel]

Superb!

[Stargazer33]

Very nice! Well planned and executed. Would it be possible to put a correctly exposed Luna surface over the overexposed one in the video? I don't know if you can splice videos like that, but it would look really awesome.

[MarsG76]

50 minutes ago, Stargazer33 said:

Very nice! Well planned and executed. Would it be possible to put a correctly exposed Luna surface over the overexposed one in the video? I don't know if you can splice videos like that, but it would look really awesome.

I was thinking exactly the same thing, hence why I captured the exact same occultation area of the moon after the event was over and tried to superimpose the video as you said but because of the fluctuation in the atmosphere it looked like it was super imposed, Saturn and the moon were literally moving independently of each other and it looked faked very faked... so I decided that the original video was the best to keep.. who knows, perhaps I'll find some software that will allow me to match the two perfectly but for now I just settled for replacing the overexposed moon in the occultation frame grabs.

[MarsG76]

54 minutes ago, Stargazer33 said:

Very nice! Well planned and executed. Would it be possible to put a correctly exposed Luna surface over the overexposed one in the video? I don't know if you can splice videos like that, but it would look really awesome.

I guess the whole scene animated where every feature and detail is visible correctly "exposed" will have to remain in my memory since thats how I saw it in the eyepiece.... great memory.

[celestron8g8]

Great capture ! Loved the video .

[Stargazer33]

1 hour ago, MarsG76 said:

... Saturn and the moon were literally moving independently of each other and it looked faked very faked...

I did wonder if that would be the case.

1 hour ago, MarsG76 said:

I guess the whole scene animated where every feature and detail is visible correctly "exposed" will have to remain in my memory since thats how I saw it in the eyepiece.... great memory.

Indeed, a great memory. Just goes to show what a magnificent match our eyes and brain are; that we can see two objects of vastly different brightness exposed correctly.

[MarsG76]

58 minutes ago, Stargazer33 said:

Just goes to show what a magnificent match our eyes and brain are; that we can see two objects of vastly different brightness exposed correctly.

Precisely....

I also find observing a DSO or planets with my eyes very rewarding, something special about seeing it in reality over a long exposure photo, even if the photo shows vastly more matter and detail....

Both observational and Imaging have their place in the hobby.

[Stargazer33]

Agreed. There is definitely more of a wow factor about seeing something 'live' as opposed to a picture, even if one has taken it oneself. 

[MilwaukeeLion]

Terrific capture and processing.  Very cool to see both so close.

[AdeKing]

I missed this event but thanks for sharing your wonderful images. 

Well done for capturing this. 

Ade

[MarsG76]

On 18/08/2019 at 15:37, MilwaukeeLion said:

Terrific capture and processing.  Very cool to see both so close.

Close and overlapped... these kinds of events are breathtaking to witness.

[MarsG76]

On 18/08/2019 at 18:21, AdeKing said:

I missed this event but thanks for sharing your wonderful images. 

Well done for capturing this. 

Ade

Thanks... was it even visible from your part of the world??

I planned for this event months ahead, the only thing that could have stoped me was clouds.

Edited August 19, 2019 by MarsG76

[Scooot]

Wow they’re good