Lunar occultation of Regulus; a hard day at the office

[Tinderboxsky]

The Moon occulted the bright star Regulus this morning, disappearing behind the far northern polar region, just before sun rise.

The bright yellow-white sparkling point of light appeared to skim along the bright far northern limb before disappearing at 5.09am, 17 minutes before sun rise. The warm glow of a colourful dawn filled the sky.
Regulus was set to re-appear from the dark limb 20 minutes after sun rise. Sure enough, right on cue, the bright star flashed into view, appearing “out of nowhere” well away from the visible part of the Moon. Quite a sight with the sparkling star set against the blue sky and the nearby Moon.

Vixen NA140SS and LVW8 - 100X, 1.4mm exit pupil.

Another uplifting start to the day.

Steve.

[Kunama]

Nice way to start the day Steve, thanks for the report!

[Tinderboxsky]

Thanks Matt.

Steve

[Benjamin]

Very nice. Lovely picture of the scope at dawn. Is that a coffee tamper handle you've installed? That would combine two very important aspects of astronomy, for me anyway :-)

[Tinderboxsky]

Hi Ben,

Thanks for your comments, it was a fine dawn.
Sorry to disappoint but it is not a coffee tamper handle that you can see on the focuser. Rather a very boring cabinet handle. I have two installed; the one you can see and one on the underneath side of the focuser. These are perfectly placed to act as handles to manually slew the scope. They act just like the old style captain's wheel (ring) that you see on old scopes.

Cheers

Steve

[skysurfer]

The next event will be better visible in AU, on 11/12 Feb about 2:00 AEDT.

[Tinderboxsky]

Yes, I certainly plan to be out observing the event. It will be a big weekend as I will have my yacht on display at the Australian Woodenboat Festival all that weekend.