Occultation predictions of Uranus

[glenc]

UNIVERSAL TIME OF DISAPPEARANCE & REAPPEARANCE
(Friday morning 12 June, add 10 hours for AEST)
Uranus will be below the crescent moon just before sunrise here.
http://www.lunar-occultations.com/iota/planets/0611uranus.htm

[madwayne]

Thanks Glen, might be worth setting the alarm for. We have an overnight forecast of 3 which should mean reasonably clear.

Wayne

[tonybarry]

Ian Musgrave has a good article on the subject, with local times, and a good writeup on how to view.

http://astroblogger.blogspot.com.au/2015/06/occultation-of-uranus-by-moon.html

Regards,
Tony Barry
WSAAG

[rustigsmed]

forecast looking "fair" for Melbourne, might try and take Friday off work and make an all-nighter of imaging and then nab this late morning.

thanks for the links.

[AstroJunk]

Weather is looking bad for Brisbane. I was planning to do a Slooh broadcast, but it looks like it will be clouded out...

Anyone in Melbourne with a good Skype connection and a decent webcam fancy providing a live feed to a few thousand eager folk worldwide? Very short notice, but lost of kudos if you can pull it off :)

I'll still be on the commentary team, but it would be a much better broadcast with a tiny green planet involved!

[rustigsmed]

hmmm, weatherzone has the 3 hourly break down @ ~30% cloud cover which generally equates to total sky block out the Matrix style. However, Sky skippy maps predicts fully clear north of the Mornington Peninsula ... doh :question:

[AstroJunk]

Got ingress, but egress was clouded out. I'm happy with that given the circumstances!

[N1]

Similar views from Dunedin before the cloud ended the session. Less than a minute to go to disappearance. Better than nothing. Not sure whether we would have seen reappearance had it been clear as the Sun was above the horizon then.

[Dennis]

I woke up at 3:00am and despite the clouds, decided to set up the Vixen 4” with a Canon 5D Mk III and the Tak Mewlon 180 F12 with the ASI120MM ccd.

Dodging the clouds I managed to grab a couple of useable shots, one through each system. Note to self – next time, engage an assistant for time critical, dual ‘scope imaging activities!:)

On the ASI image, I dodged in an LRGB Uranus over the scrape of light where the planet’s disc appeared in the original B&W frame, to make it more obvious and aesthetically pleasing. I’m not sure if my focus was slightly off or whether the seeing was particularly bad given the clouds and lowish altitude.

Cheers

Dennis

[Blue Skies]

Then you all did better than those of us in Melbourne - totally socked in with thick, thick fog, that still hasn't cleared as I type!

[BeanerSA]

My youngest son and I, we're not morning people. Nonetheless, we decided we would get up at 0400 and catch our first glimpse of Uranus, and also of the occultation. Nights have been clear, but oh, so cold here. We carried his scope outside, and tried to get good views between shivering. We had no problems picking up Uranus and watch it creep towards the edge of the moon. I had encouraged him to leave his scope out during the night so that it could stabilise thermally, but he didn't want to, and so we eventually lost Uranus in the tube currents and the bright edge of the moon. We weren't hanging around another hour for it to pop out again. Another top night!

[tonybarry]

Western Sydney was 100% cloud. Lovely. Just lovely.

Well, it does provide rich material for improving patience and forebearance in the soul of the would-be sky watcher.

Regards,
Tony Barry

[glenc]

Thanks Dennis and Jonathan for the images. Congratulations to those that saw it. It was cloudy here.

[pluto]

Stunning images Dennis! well done!!

[multiweb]

Great shot Dennis. :thumbsup: Does your mewlon come with a corrector?

[Astroman]

I managed to capture it, although not as detailed as Dennis' shots. Nice work..

I threw them together for a quick video.. Bit wobbly, but watchable..

https://youtu.be/3NO2XPwuXz4

Ingress and Egress times in UTC shown at the beginning of the video.

[pluto]

That's great!
And a nice illustration of PE ;)

[Dennis]

Hi Marc

The Mewlon 180 F12 does not come with a corrector but you can purchase a Tak Reducer, although it does not entirely remove the off axis coma (a well know property of DK Cassegrains) although for small chips such as those in the ASI120MM webcam it is not a problem.

I have the Tak x0.80 Reducer (F12 down to F9.6) and although I am informed it has AR coatings, the glass elements look bare to the naked eye and when using the Reducer, it seems to produce a noticeable reflection in any Flats I take?:shrug:

All Tak accessories tend to be expensive but they are built like a tank, fit extremely well and are lovely to use.:)

Cheers

Dennis

[Dennis]

Great work Andrew – thanks for the ingress and egress views, we missed these in my suburb in Brisbane.:thumbsup:

Cheers

Dennis

[AstroJunk]

Fantastic images Dennis :)

[Dennis]

Thanks Jonathan, it was touch and go setting up in time due to the uncertainty with the weather.:)

Here is a composite of exposures taken between 4:46am and 5:05am, some with thin cloud but others in clearer patches. I have creatively enhanced the appearance of the disc of Uranus to make it a more pleasing composition. On the originals, the dot of Uranus was a smear of a few pixels, which helped anchor the location for each frame.

Good shooting from the observatory by the way, the animation really shows the dynamic nature of this event. It’s a real shame that the egress was hidden by clouds.:sadeyes:

Cheers

Dennis

[glenc]

Dennis that is a great sequence. :thumbsup:

[Dennis]

Thanks Glen and thank you also for your original post, alerting us to this event.:)

Cheers

Dennis

[Suzy]

So great to see these images, Jonathan, Dennis & Andrew, thank you all so much :).

There was a big blanket of cloud over my area in Brisbane that I gave up and went to bed.
Colin Legg over in W.A. got a nice shot too.