I enjoy chasing these events as they provide a completely different visual experience. The background sky is a bright blue and Venus (or a bright star) are bright and jewel like. This contrasts with the Moon that is quite faint, lacking in contrast and quite ethereal looking.
This is my second daylight Venus occultation. I have observed a Spica occultation in broad daylight, but my more memorable observation was an occultation of Regulus at sunrise. The disappearance (bright side occurred 17 minutes before sunrise and some fine high cloud provided a some striking pinks in the sky background. The re-appearance (dark side) occurred 20 mins after sunrise, providing a very different experience.
I have attached two photos I took at the time that give a feel for this. Sorry, they are low resolution copies but they give a sense of the change between disappearance and re-appearance. The scope is my larger NA140SS on a Trex mount.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DeepSkyBagger
Nice one, Steve. That's a good catch. In my 40 years+ of observing, I've never seen a daylight occultation.
|