Quadruple Transit Saturn's Moons

[PeterM]

Hi all,
Just had this sent to me. On the night of the 24th February while many are viewing and imaging Comet Lulin you may also want to turn your attention and camera to this interesting event on Saturn. This is a rare event - even the Hubble Telescope will aimed at Saturn for this one. I am sure some of the fine imagers at IIS can post some images.
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/19feb_quadrupletransit.htm
PeterM

[sheeny]

Thanks for the heads up, Peter!

Al.

[erick]

Grrr! Stellarium on my laptop and Stellarium on my desktop are giving me transit times that differ by an hour and I cannot see why. Doesn't matter. If the skies are clear, I'll just watch from about 9pm.

Here is the prediction for 18 min after midnight from Stellarium on my desktop, when all four Moons are over the surface for around 6 minutes!

(My laptop says this all happens one hour later. Yet both are set to the right location and both show the current time correctly :shrug:)

[Quark]

Thanks Peter,

Looking forward to this event, I plan to image it every 10 min's for the duration of Titan's transit.

Regards
Trevor

[iceman]

Weather forecast not looking good for me :(

[h0ughy]

LOL would it be worth a trip inland Mike?

[iceman]

hmm probably, it's a very rare event!

[h0ughy]

this is the view now - looks like two fronts, one near Victoria and a developing system west of us - be interesting to see how it is this afternoon?

[prova]

Whens the best time to view from Canberra?

[erick]

I reckon start checking it out from 9pm. Titan's shadow comes on first - might even be on by then? Let me go and properly calculate.

Best you work from the animation (if you can work out how to step it):-

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/images/quadrupletransit/quadtransit2009.gif

The text says:- "The event begins on Tuesday morning, Feb. 24th at 10:54 UT when Titan's circular shadow falls across Saturn's cloudtops. About forty minutes later, the ruddy disk of Titan itself moves over the clouds."

Australian Eastern Summer time is UT + 11 hr, so shadow falls from 9:54pm Tuesday evening 24th Feb.

"At 14:24 UT, all four satellites and their shadows will simultaneously dot Saturn's disk" hence at AEST 1:24am Wed morning 25th Feb.

Hope my conversions are right.

[mozzie]

thanks for the info guys ill be watching
lets hope for clear skies:whistle::whistle::whistle:
mozzie

[Screwdriverone]

Great Picture Eric,

Focus and colours are SPOT ON. I really like the way you labelled the moons for reference also!

Great work, keep em coming :lol:

;)

Cheers

Chris

[erick]

Moonshadows are a bit faint (like non-existent!) I must have over exposed :D

[Screwdriverone]

Ahh, never mind, the image scale is HUUUUUGE, well done! ;)

[andrew]

Sounds like a rare event indeed, here's hoping for clear weather..

[Quark]

Just had a look at our weather forecast for Tuesday 24th Feb
Clear and 33 C.

Looking good.
Regards
Trevor

[ausastronomer]

Hi Mike,

If the weather is good you may want to head up to Crackneck. I have done a good bit of planetary observation there over the years and the seeing is usually superb up there. Elevation is good and you are looking straight across the ocean. Water temperatures are generally very stable with no rising currents. If you want to make the trip up there, give me a call and I will probably join you.

Cheers,
John B

[jkrah]

thanks heaps Peter for posting !!

Pretty cool to think you could be 'sharing the view' with the Hubble..
..like others just hoping the weather holds up!

[Quark]

Been clear as all day out here in Broken Hill,
Temp is very comfortable, in the mid to high twenties.

Looking forward to a top night.

Regards
trevor

[MrB]

Weather isn't looking good over here :(

[Jen]

:sadeyes: i missed it dam it :(now im just gonna have to wait for all your lovely pics to come flowing in :thumbsup:

[Blue Skies]

Meanwhile, back in Perth:

Despite threatening cloud from an approaching cold front, ten ASWA members met at an eastward facing lookout in Whiteman Park to view the event. The shadow transit of Titan was already in progress when Saturn rose. Viewing conditions weren't the best, with a murky sky and Saturn low to the horizon for us, but we kept trying to spot the shadow after it cleared a cloud bank around 9.45pm. The biggest telescope on site was a 10" dob and several 8" SCTs and the best view we got was ...with a the ol' cheap Meade video eyepiece and a barlow in an SCT! We could just make out the shadow from time to time as a slight darkening near one pole, then Titan would appear briefly as a bright spot. No signs of the smaller moons at that level of quality. Still, all agreed it was a fun night, something out of the ordinary in a different location in the park than to where we normally meet for Lunatiks.

P.S. I notice there is yet another thread for this event - might post this down there as well.

[erick]

So when does NASA put up the first rough shot? We'll even settle for one colour channel! All together now - "Why are we WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIT-TING?"

[iceman]

I've seen a preview.. DAMN HOT!

I don't know when Hubble Heritage will release the shots but it'll be worth the wait.

[erick]

:sadeyes: OK, I'll wait.