Occultation Of Saturn By The Moon: 14th May, 2014.

[Suzy]

Saturn is our celebrity in the sky at the moment.
First its opposition yesterday- Sunday 11th May (closest approach to Earth- big and bright!) and now on Wednesday 14th, we have our first night time occultation event of Saturn and the Moon in over 10 years, wow! So, with it being so close, and its rings which are so beautifully opened up at the moment, it should make for some knock out photography coming our way!

If you don't have a telescope, just look to the east in the times given in my facebook post below, and you will see a bright yellow "star" (Saturn) disappear behind the Moon and re-appear on the other side of the Moon. Kids will love this I'm sure of it!

I was wondering how much success I'd have using my Canon EOS-1100 camera using prime focus on my 10" Dobsonian? I'm thinking Saturn might be moving too fast?

Below is the fb post I popped on the IceInSpace fb page today.
Lots of great information in it regarding this event. :)

[noswonky]

A made a video about this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhMdNGXzC5U

[Suzy]

Peter, that was absolutely brilliant! I really enjoyed that, thank you so much.
You explained everything so well, and I'm especially glad that you explained *why* the moon appears to move differently so as to cover Saturn- you're going to help so many people with this. It was a question I once had too.

I will post this on our fb page on either Tues or Wed with my reminder post.
"Wonky Astronomer" :lol: Funny! :rofl: I love it!

[astroron]

Nicely done Peter, well presented.
Cheers:thumbsup:

[julianh72]

Colin Legg from Perth shot a superb video of the last occultation back in February (in daylight hours!), which will give you a good idea of the relative speeds:
http://vimeo.com/87319245

[Suzy]

Julian, I remember that well & thank you for sharing, it was great to see it again. Colin was fortunate to be observing it from Western Australia so the sky was a tad darker when that event took place, lucky guy. This was the best capture I'd come across of this event. Phil Plait (Bad Astronomer) also did a write up on his page about this image. A truly fantastic capture- especially in daytime.

[RichardJ]

Hi Suzy,

Thanks for all the info. I'm setting up a few scopes to observe and image. Also, hope to show this event to the family. Weather forecast is good for Sydney, so fingers crossed.

RichardJ

[Suzy]

All the best for clear skies Richard. I wish I had some young children with me to watch that event- I would love to see their reaction. It'd be a great family event that's for sure.
It's starting to look good here in Brisbane too- I was a bit worried up to yesterday :D.

[julianh72]

I'm sure hoping for reasonable viewing in Brisbane - if so, my father and I will have all of out telescopes out at his place (in a retirement village), and all of his neighbours are already anticipating a look!

[rustigsmed]

Hmmm,

any suggestions for capturing this via dslr?

i note that colin's video was during the day, so there will be much more contrast and under that massive moon.

bracketing? or video?

I am thinking a bit of everything. bracketing when saturn is at some distance but within frame.

increase focal length for a close up as it approaches the limb (video).

widefield video as it appears from the other side ... then perhaps some bracketing widefield afterward... :sadeyes:

of course this assumes it will be cloudless...

cheers rusty

[johnnyjetski]

HI all,

Might find link useful for information about this event.

http://www.lunar-occultations.com/iota/planets/0514saturn.htm

Cross our fingers Suzi, with this cloud thats been creeping in this week.

John

[Suzy]

Sorry Russell I can't help you as I do very simple photography- don't even know if I'll be able to get this event using prime focus thru my 10" dob, but will give it a go anyway. Hopefully someone will step in. It sounds like you've got a good plan anyway. :)

John, I'm actually feeling confident for clear skies tomorrow night. It's beautiful and clear out there at the moment and today wasn't too bad compared to the rest of the week. Here's hoping :D.
The hubby is really keen to see this too- he's been busy the whole night getting stuff ready to photograph it :D. Will be our first planetary piccy (done moon & sun etc), I don't care if its fuzzy etc as long as we get something of the event I will be one happy astro chick. :D

Julian, that's terrific what you're doing- you are going to make a lot of people happy in that retirement village. All the best for the night, great stuff! :thumbsup:

[OzStarGazer]

Cloud cover tonight: 4%... Hopefully not just "there"!!!! :)

[noswonky]

Thanks Suzy. Blue sky here in the Blue Mountains at 9.30am and 4% cloud forecast for tonight.

I'm going to try an SLR at the prime focus of my 12" dob - perhaps with a 2x barlow depending on the size and shakiness of the image.

[Rob_K]

Looking a bit iffy here for tonight - forecast is "Mostly clear" but the 48-hour forecast shows that as 40% cloud cover at 9pm. Ah well, beats rain or 100% cloud cover, just have to hope for a clear patch at the right time! All being well I'll give it a go with a webcam.

Cheers -

[Astroman]

Looking forward to tonight if the clouds depart enough. Will use standard 8" f/4 scope with time-lapse centred on the moon for something a little different.

Looking forward to seeing how different it compares to the image I got from Occult v 4.1

[N1]

I have written to Gianluca re contributing some images after he contacted me but stressed that I was not into AP and take photos holding the SLR to the eye piece. It's as low-tec as it gets but has yielded reasonable results in the past - at least for documentation purposes. The weather is pretty marginal here in Dunedin at the moment, so it may be a non-event for me.

Suzy, you should have no trouble imaging Saturn with your 10" dob and SLR. The dob provides so much light that exposure times should be able to be kept sufficiently short :thumbsup:. The only other problem might be the dynamic range of the pair, so be sure to shoot RAW.

Then again, I'm really in no position to give advice since I don't even do prime focus :ashamed:

[killswitch]

Ill have a spare scope tonight, ill see if i can put a webcam stream up.

[mozzie]

home early from work...have the bino's setup for tonight...looking good here.
let's hope it's a clear night on the east coast..

[N1]

So Sydney's finally getting a break and I'm not there... oh well :sadeyes:

[Dennis]

Just looked at the Brisbane forecast for 9:00pm tonight and it predicts intermittent rain.:(

Oh well, there is always the next lifetime…:)

Cheers

Dennis

[julianh72]

Aaaggghhhh!!! Something like 75% cloud cover at the moment as I look out my office window.

Luckily, we may not have to wait a lifetime - the next occultation of Saturn is in just a few months - 4th August 2014 at 21:19 - 22:27 in Brisbane.

http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2014/01/29/3932747.htm#eclipse

[mozzie]

Sorry guys the moon and Saturn are looking good here:)..no clouds at all
Just about getting the 2 in the field of view in my binos ..have the semi apo filters in the eyepieces and it does darken the objects just nicely and there is a very slight hint of a yellow/violet color on the edge of the moon..very happy

[Kunama]

Clear sky in Canberra for a change, bit of moisture in the air but should be a great view.

[alphamone]

Got perfect skies here in Canberra. I have even tested out my telescope camera with a barlow lens and have gotten some nice image quality (and worked out how to make youtube use the telescope camera rather than the built in webcam), and should be perfectly set up for later tonight.

I will do another test once Saturn gets close enough to the moon to find it by manual scanning with the fine movement knobs (i don't have a goto scope, and dont have any ground level enough to put my telescope on for the RA; DEC measurements to be useful) to get the manual exposure settings set.

What will really be fun will be trying to time the reappearance at 10 pm, probably going to just track the point of the moon where it will reappear, start recording a few minutes before it is due to show, and just edit it in post.

Hopefully I will have a youtube link in about two hours time.

edit: got my settings set, waiting for saturn to get within the FOV of my camera to do final adjustments and start recording.

Not a very high framerate or resolution, but here it is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtZerdHtNEU

[killswitch]

Cheapo webcam stream:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/test-32342412

If it shakes its because im watching from a second scope

[Suzy]

Waaaaaaaah :(! My telescope got rained on for the very first time in 5 years. I was being wildly optimistic to view the Saturn/Moon occultation tonight so wheeled it out to cool mirror down, and Russ was super keen to take pics spending the last couple of days getting stuff prepared for it. He still thinks we got a chance with optimism that would tug at ones heart strings (I blame him for scope getting wet lol). With an hour yet to go for the event, I really don't think this is going to happen- it'd take a miracle. Boooooh Brisbane!
At least I got a very quick look at Saturn near the moon between a cloud gap, so I'll have to be happy with that.




Hi Mirka, thank you on behalf of so many people (including me by the looks grrr!) for having a go at contributing. In my opinion, any image is a good image as it allows the people missing this event (moi, for one :mad2: ) to see it. Thank you also for the tips- tho.... :windy:

[Astroman]

Well it cleared up nicely for the occultation :)

[Steffen]

So far so good, the first half of the attraction went down under perfect conditions, even the seeing was alright. I hope it holds for the reappearance.

Cheers
Steffen.

[Amaranthus]

I got some nice shots with my Neximage 5, although it was tough to control the brightness difference between the Moon and Saturn!

Edit: First conversion was rubbish, so redoing!

[killswitch]

Yours looks good minus the shake.

I didnt even bother exposing for the moon till after. Mines here:

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/47543821

[Amaranthus]

Doing a new one now, hang on - the conversion didn't go well!

[mozzie]

We'll that was fantastic..perfect skies good seeing...quick cup of tea then out for the finale..

[Kunama]

My son and I took turns at the eyepiece though I doubt I will see him for the 3rd contact.......

[Amaranthus]

Right - here is the "non-shake" version, 4 different short videos spliced (10 MB total, .MP4 compressed file), total time 45 seconds.

The last 5 seconds gets Saturn's final disappearance nicely: http://goo.gl/opKFJv

Taken with Celestron 8SE SCT at f/10 with Neximage 5, captured in iCap and converted in FVC

[Occulta]

I recorded the D using my occultation DVR with timestamp via a Watec 120N and another to the laptop via a ASI120mm.

Both worked well so now for the R.

Chris

[noswonky]

My raw video of the disappearance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzhLaW6Aum0

[mozzie]

Thank goodness I finally had an event without cloud and rain!!!!
Very pleasant evening

[Dennis]

Here’s my effort. Around 8:40pm we saw that the clouds were breaking up so we set up our 77mm Leica spotting ‘scope on a photo tripod and were enthralled by the view, as the Moon drew slowly closer to Saturn. When the next wave of clouds obscured the fantastic scene I sprinted upstairs and grabbed the Canon EOS-M with EF-M22mm F2 lens to try my hand at some old fashioned hand-held afocal eyepiece projection.

This was one occasion where viewing the image on the rear LCD was beneficial, not to mention the complete absence of mirror slap, as the EOS-M is a mirrorless camera.:)

I combined a shot exposed for Saturn with one of the better ones of the Moon and was very pleased with how the last minute project turned out. We missed the actual occultation as the clouds returned and it looked they were here to stay so we packed up.

What a night! What a sight!:)

Cheers

Dennis

[alphamone]

Tried to get the unblocking, unfortunately, as my camera lacks the dynamic range to get both saturn and the moon in detail at the same time, I could only aim at the vague area where it would be emerging, and unfortunately, was unable to catch it emerging.

Though it does not matter, as I still got to see it disappear behind the moon as well as doing some direct observation in the hours prior to occultation.

Next one is in three months time.

[AstroJunk]

Almost completely clouded out here, but managed to get a few frames of video despite the conditions. Grr.

[grant.earth]

A first processing photo from Mount Isa. With some more processing I hope to get a higher dynamic range to bring Saturn out more clearly.

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7377/13997705640_5710549050_n.jpg (https://www.flickr.com/photos/mars73/13997705640/)
ContactZoom (https://www.flickr.com/photos/mars73/13997705640/) by mars73 (https://www.flickr.com/people/mars73/), on Flickr

[mickyj]

I tried to capture it with what little I had. A camera and a 800mm lens with a doubler. https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5156/13997689639_224f532530_b_d.jpghttps ://farm8.staticflickr.com/7369/13997717258_6df3bf0fa0_b_d.jpg

[Retrograde]

Bit rough & ready (learning layer masks as I go to equalise the exposure) but this is a single frame through the ED102 just as the occultation is about to begin (it's also my first ever pic of Saturn :))

[Steffen]

I, too, chose to expose for Saturn and blow out the Moon. Here's my amateurish attempt at movie making. The clip is sped up by a factor of four.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16496720/Lunar%20Occultation%20of%20Saturn%2 04x%20full.mp4

Cheers
Steffen.

[SkyViking]

Despite some cloud I managed to get both the disappearance and reappearance. It was amazing to watch on the screen with 5x Powermate. Hope to get going with the processing soon, but it's 1am here so I'm off for now :)

[Screwdriverone]

I just got the disappearance, video on Youtube here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fcOxmoZXi8&feature=youtu.be

Also, a snapshot image taken using SharpCap attached.

For once, no clouds, YAY.

Cheers

Chris

[AG Hybrid]

Watched the whole thing. it was fantastic. Even got my 70 year old parents excited as they also watched.

[Rob_K]

Was fairly clear for the Saturn occultation here, some high haze and clouds scudding through. Did my usual B-grade job LOL, and apologies for the dust bunnies etc as I forgot to clean my gear! Here's some very short videos - keep them small when viewing as they don't suit hi-res. The surface brightness difference between the Moon & Saturn is a killer, Saturn's a faint ghost planet! Did slightly better (but not much!) on the egress.

First, just off the limb of the Moon, approaching ingress:
http://youtu.be/RovsIa4YUpY
Second, Saturn during ingress:
http://youtu.be/Vq37nBllV4Y
Third, Saturn during egress, conveniently right beside Mare Crisium:
http://youtu.be/iyP2KSzuOBI
And last, Saturn just on the limb after egress:
http://youtu.be/7row63ZePUs

Attached are some processed photos, using around 80 of the 90 frames in each video.

Cheers -

[noswonky]

Here are both events:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OO8cqBsrcW4
This video is at 4x normal speed.

Equipment:
Pentax K-7 SLR (video mode)
Skywatcher 12" goto Dob with 2x barlow.

[Kurt]

Here is how I saw it from Sydney with my C5 Spotting Scope connected up with an 18-24 onto a 7D body :thumbsup:

[RichardJ]

Hi Suzy,

I'm so sorry the weather did not co-operate. I hope you get to see the next one on August 4th.

RichardJ

[JetDragon]

At last - clear skies for an astronomical event - having missed both the recent lunar and solar eclipses.

Obviously not as good as other pictures on this site but pretty happy with my images taken with a compact Canon held to the eyepiece of a 70mm refractor - proves you can get workable results without expensive equipment!!

cheers

Dave

[OzStarGazer]

Finally an event I could watch undisturbed by clouds!!!! :)
Even if the photos could have turned out better and post-work and enhancing didn't help much, it was the first event I could actually watch, so it was special...
Photos taken at my local beach with a cheap 70mm refractor somebody gave me for the solar eclipse (and they haven't picked it up yet....) and a cheap point-and-shoot camera... I also used a ND filter and tried to enhance later because the glow was really strong.

[julianh72]

It was 100% cloud for most of last evening at my place too (and a bit of rain as well), so I cancelled the session at the Retirement Village with my father. :(

But at about 8:50 a nice hole in the clouds opened up around the Moon. I grabbed my scope and set it up, and managed to watch for 20 minutes as Saturn slid out of view - beautiful! I had no time to set up a decent camera, but I got a few blurry shots on my phone camera held up to the eyepiece (but not good enough to post here!)

Then the clouds and rain returned - and that was it for the night!

Here's hoping for better skies in August!

[rustigsmed]

thin cloud in melbourne, unable to see saturn naked eye but all fine through the scope.

managed to fire off some bracketed shots when saturn was out wide then when closer in and video'd.

on the reappearance decided to watch visually as i was fairly happy with the footage i took. got a bit of work to do process wise.

fantastic event so glad to have witnessed it :) annnnnd get some shots!

[38degsouth]

A few of the many shots that were submitted almost 'real-time' to Gianluca Masi at Virtual Telescope Project for his worldwide webcast.

Luckily the very thin high cloud here in Melbourne somewhat thinned out as the evening progressed ...and it was a warmish dew-less night too, which helped greatly!

Many thanks to Gianluca for producing such a wonderfully narrated webcast of this event lastnight...! It was a pleasure to be a part of :)

Regards from Dean.

[tonybarry]

From Western Sydney, using a Watec 910BD camera. The High Dynamic Range function allowed the planet and the moon to be relatively well displayed.

How this function is accomplished is not documented, so times as displayed may not reflect reality :-) For scientific work, the HDR images should probably be avoided till more is known about them. For general use, it can't be beat.

Regards,
Tony Barry

[Wycky]

Here is my shot just before.
https://docs.google.com/a/synbiz.com.au/file/d/0B_EodzKMvgqoT2tzTklPWjNXa2M/edit?pli=1

Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7e8eW8zA2dg

Was such a clear night in Sydney. Awesome time for looking at the stars

[REVEREND]

I managed this one last night with a 400 mil lens ansd a 7D.
http://i1135.photobucket.com/albums/m625/Chipfryer/_MG_9649_zpsd06670fb.jpg (http://s1135.photobucket.com/user/Chipfryer/media/_MG_9649_zpsd06670fb.jpg.html)

[grant.earth]

The high dynamic range version.

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7422/14004041619_11c02d8cae_t.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/nkunFr)Stacked Occultation Zoom (https://flic.kr/p/nkunFr) by mars73 (https://www.flickr.com/people/49503042431@N01/), on Flickr
https://flic.kr/p/nkunFr

[pw]

My best shot turned out to be from a hand-held iPhone over the eyepiece of my 200mm dob.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7401/14187315901_571e5eb3ea_o.jpg

[gaa_ian]

For us here in FNQ, the clouds rolled in ! I did manage to see Saturn close
To the moon I. The early part of the evening though & this was certainly
Worth the effort

[SkyViking]

Despite intermittent clouds I was lucky enough to capture both the disappearance and reappearance of Saturn. The occultation lasted approximately 47 minutes here in Auckland.
I was not able to get colour because I used a high QE mono QHY5L-II and I don't have a separate filter wheel, only the integrated filter wheel in the QSI CCD camera.
To overcome the difference in brightness between Saturn and the Moon I took two separate exposures and combined them.

Image details:
Date: 14th May 2014
Exposure: Moon 209 x 0.6ms, Saturn 500 x 9.6ms
Telescope: Homebuilt 12.5" f/4 Homebuilt Serrurier Truss Newtonian
Camera: QHY5L-II mono
Filters: None
Taken from my observatory in Auckland, New Zealand

[tonybarry]

Lovely work, Rolf. Always good to see your images.

Regards,
Tony Barry

[JetDragon]

Very nice image Rolf -well done:thumbsup:

[Suzy]

Oh my gosh, wow, there's just so many gorgeous pics on here you guys- thank you so much!
I had linked this thread in my original heads up post on our fb page, but I'm going to do another one either later or tomorrow for people to come and see these beautiful pics- there's so many of them! It's worth a share on it's own. :D

Well the weather was horrid here in Brisbane- it rained and a blanket of white cloud, so I was amazed it cleared for egress, yaaaay! Russ had the camera gear set up on my 10" scope using prime focus, and me, I'm a visual observer so grrrrr I didn't see much :mad2:. If the weather was clear, the pics would've been taken at ingress and my observing at egress using high power with my XW5 :camera:. Possibly my best view was with the binoculars as Saturn was getting close to the moon before clouds took it out. I need photons on my eye... :shrug:

Thank you so much to those that contributed their time and images to the Virtual Telescope Project run by Gianluca Masi. I was able to see what I was missing out on, along with others too! He posted a call here in astro events for contributions.

[Astroman]

Composition from my home observatory in Adelaide.

[noswonky]

Here's my full video of the Saturn occultation showing not just the event, but also my scope/camera setup and with calming music to make you feel good while you watch it...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pe3_ZThizvk

[Dennis]

Excellent work Peter.:thumbsup:

Not only do I feel relaxed, but I also am now better informed.:)

Thanks for the video, it was entertaining and educational.:)

Cheers

Dennis

[astroron]

Very entertaining and informative presentation Peter.:)
Well done. :thumbsup:
Cheers

[Suzy]

Excellent video Peter, thank you :thumbsup:.

Here's our contribution- very basic :lol:, but Russ & I are absolutely chuffed at what a 10" dob using prime focus can do, wow!
It's egress- I wish Russ had captured it closer tho :sadeyes:, but hey, I'm a happy astro chicky all the same that we got something!
Camera used is a Canon EOS-1100. No processing, just cropped.

162703

[Astroman]

Great stuff everyone, terrific video's, awesome pictures by everyone, BRING ON AUGUST!