Lunar Occultations of Saturn

[geoflewis]

Well that was a waste of time. I set the alarm for 3:45 and it was clear when I headed out, but this lot rolled in around 4:10am and I couldn’t make out Saturn through the glare.

I kept going until after the 1st contact was over, but nothing doing…. 🤬. Back to bed it is….😴

[Les Ewan]

Managed a couple of images using a Skywatcher Star Discovery 150P f5 Newt. The camera was a Nikon D3200 DSLR attached to a X2 Barlow. 1/10th sec exposure at ISO 100.

A patch of  cloud covered the event just before immersion but apart from that I was pleased with the observation,though the wind was a bit annoying!

[Roy Challen]

Lots of thin cloud rendered Saturn almost invisible at times. Almost, but not quite. Taken with phone handheld at the eyepiece. Tak FS60-CB, SvBony zoom @ 3 and 4mm.

 

 

 

 

Edited August 21 by Roy Challen

[Steve Ward]

44 minutes ago, geoflewis said:

Well that was a waste of time. I set the alarm for 3:45 and it was clear when I headed out, but this lot rolled in around 4:10am and I couldn’t make out Saturn through the glare.

I kept going until after the 1st contact was over, but nothing doing…. 🤬. Back to bed it is….😴

That's saved me a load of typing , word for word identical experience here neighbour ... 😴

[Kon]

I missed the whole event as I am on holidays but great to see some pics of the occultation. It seems that the typical UK weather ruined it for many of you 🥲.

[Les Ewan]

56 minutes ago, geoflewis said:

Well that was a waste of time. I set the alarm for 3:45 and it was clear when I headed out, but this lot rolled in around 4:10am and I couldn’t make out Saturn through the glare.

I kept going until after the 1st contact was over, but nothing doing…. 🤬. Back to bed it is….😴

Thats a pity because by the looks of it a clearer patch was nearby.

[josefk]

Hazy and wobbly ingress observed here in South Lincs at 04:30. In the grey glare and wobbly seeing I estimated circa 30-seconds from first contact till full immersion (1 Mississippi, 2 Mississippi, etc).

Much clearer and sharper view of egress at 05:19 (ish). Unfortunately I was expecting egress a bit higher than it was so didn’t see the first few seconds of the emergence but did see about 15-seconds duration and 50% occultation of Saturn till full emergence. 
 

A super sight and it was especially lovely a few minutes later at low magnification as the sky turned blue. Brilliant. 

[Paz]

I had some good luck this morning. There was mostly thin cloud so I went out with a 127mm Maksutov. Saturn was invisible naked eye at all times but visible at the eyepiece. It looked a dull grey compared to the moon, on its own Saturn looks much brighter. I didn't see any moons of Saturn at any point.

I tried taking a picture but in the last few minutes before contact I dropped all distractions and was glued to the eyepiece.

The first contact was great, with the planet seeming to "land" it's south pole on the moon. I counted about 40 seconds in my head from when Saturn touched the moon to when it disappeared behind.

The thin cloud remained all around but I stayed out. Theta Tauri was a fine sight, a big bright wide double easy to line up with just a Telrad. Theta 1 yellow and Theta 2 more white.

I tried M45 (why not!?) and had far too small a field of view so I tried for some doubles within it.

HD23463 mag 7.7/12.9 18.3" secondary not seen but I could see other field stars past magnitude 12.5.

HD23469 mag 8.3/9.4 1.1" fail, I think not enough magnification and I didn't want to start changing eyepieces.

I then remembered other planets were up, and I had not realised how high they are. Jupiter and Mars up at 40 degrees! Jupiter was pretty good, Mars was small, I could see a phase and a terminator softer than the limb but that was it.

I set back up on the moon in good time for the emergence of Saturn near the north side of Maren Crisium, and was glued to the eyepiece a few minutes before emergence.

This was much more epic than first contact. The  reappearance looked like a dull star had appeared, then that slowly turned into a fine line growing out of the darkness, Saturn was emerging edge on. As the ring grew longer the sound track to 2001space oddyssey started playing in my head!

Then body of the planet itself appeared and then the rest of the ring and Saturn slowly drifted away.

A great session and I think it beats the Venus occultation which is the last one I saw.

I packed up at 5.40, Jupiter was still clearly visible naked eye, I should plan a morning to have a go at Jupiter properly.

[geoflewis]

3 hours ago, Les Ewan said:

Thats a pity because by the looks of it a clearer patch was nearby.

That was the patch the Moon was in 10 minutes earlier, immediately after I got up - typical British astronomy weather….🙄

[Mark at Beaufort]

Thanks CentaurZ for the heads up.

I set the alarm for 4am and I decided to use my SvBony 90mm frac with the 7-21mm zoom.

Saturn was nicely placed at about 4.15am and I used the 7mm to get a closer view.

I watched as Saturn got closer to the Moon and at 4.29am it vanished. The brightness of the Moon did not allow the individual Moons of Saturn to appear.

[lukebl]

I made the rookie error of forgetting the disparity between the very low surface brightness of Saturn compared to the moon. It was academic anyway as high clouds rolled in and virtually eliminated Saturn from view.

Anyway, here's a short video a couple of minutes before the occultation. 250mm f/4.8 Newtonian, 2x Barlow, ZWO asi120mc-s camera.

[TiffsAndAstro]

Astrobins pic of the day is quite nice

[melsmore]

Despite the weather forecasts saying cloudy all I night, I set an alarm for 02:00 GMT and found it clear! I managed to miss the ingress due to incompetence (PC cable and telescope alignment issues) , end the egress due to cloud, ☹️ but got a couple of pictures soon  after egress 🙂 through a brightening and milky sky.

[lukebl]

Here's a very rough and ready capture about 10 minutes before first contact, in very hazy and deteriorating conditions.

250mm f/4.8 Newtonian, 2x Barlow, ZWO asi120mc-s camera. A stack of about 400 frames.

[PeterStudz]

Clear earlier on but turned cloudy for me too, so I went back to bed  

[Space Hopper]

Thanks to all who have posted images of this mornings occultation.

It was crystal clear in Derby for the entire event. For a change !! 😀

Things like this continue to fascinate me, and it was a treat to watch it.

Hopefully we'll get to see another one at some point...........

[scotty1]

Probably need a longer zoom, and the clouds were lurking, and I was nearly asleep. 🙄 (it's pants) 

Edited August 22 by scotty1

[Stu]

Cracking shots as you would expect from Pete Lawrence and Damian Peach on FB. Hopefully these links work.

Great pics on this thread too, thanks for those as I missed it due to cloud.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/uK7JHx14PB2egsZG/?

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/5HhmngetnZNwUT8u/?

[dweller25]

Congratulations to everyone who ….

A. Managed to get up at 4am

B. Had clearish skies

I was totally clouded over so thanks for sharing your images 👍

Edited August 22 by dweller25

[Mandy D]

A stunning capture of Saturn approaching occultation along with the ISS from Thierry Legault of France:

http://www.astrophoto.fr/occultation_saturn_iss_20240821_80_1080.jpg

Edit: the image was acquired in Spain.

Edited August 22 by Mandy D

[Saganite]

What a fabulous image !

 

Thanks for posting it...

[Saganite]

I had everything set the previous evening but still awoke early and was in there by 3.25am.  There was a fair bit of high cloud but both framed well at 164x if a little soft.  I amused myself for the duration with lunar and a few doubles until the planet emerged, the rings appearing first as a small line sticking out of the Moon.  Excellent, enjoyed it immensely, even the seeing had improved a little.......

Edited August 22 by Saganite