HYADES OCCULTATIONS BY LAST QUARTER MOON - Early hours of 24th August, Saturday.

[paulastro]

The first event listed in the BAA Handbook is the disappearance of a mag 3.8 star at 0343 (Grenwich), followed by stars of mag 4.8, and 4.3.  This will be a nice thing to observe with the Moon, only just past last quarter, in a stellar rich part of the sky.  According to AN magazine (August issue) the Moon will be between 35 and 45 degrees altitude for the duration of the occultation events.   It should be a fine sight even in binoculars which should be able to show the main events if they are mounted on a tripod.

Civil dawn will start at 05.22 BST on Saturday morning so I for one will be out early to observe the Moon before the occultation events begin.  The weather looks hopeful across much of the UK, but if the worse happens I can always follow events on SkySafari - it looks pretty good on this

There is more information in the BAA Handbook and AN which has some illustrations.

If anyone takes any nice pics it would be good to see them.