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Old 17-04-2021, 09:58 AM
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Tinderboxsky (Steve)
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Lunar Occultaiton of Tau Tauri

Fast, streaming bands of clouds opened up a gap just in time for me to observe the disappearance of Tau Tauri on the Earth Shine illuminated dark side of the crescent Moon in the fading twilight last night. Tau, at Mag 4.3 was nice and bright and it's faint wide companion clearly visible. The view was surprisingly clear and stable given they were at only 11 degrees elevation.

The occultation was close to the South Pole, so the approaching Moon appeared to be on a glancing trajectory with Tau. Tau blinked out first, followed by the faint companion several seconds later. I thought I was going to miss the disappearance of the companion, as no sooner had Tau blinked out, fine cloud obscured the the faint companion. Seconds later the companion showed faintly through this cloud and a second or two later it blinked out.

By the time the re-appearance was due, the Moon had sunk to only 4.5 degrees elevation and the highly volatile atmosphere spoilt any chance of viewing the re-appearance. There was a silver lining though, as the Moon was now skimming across the jagged dark mountain profiles behind Mt Wellington. So, the field of view included the dark mountain profile, the fuzzy thin crescent Moon with brilliant Earth Shine and streaming bands of fast moving clouds. I watched as the Moon grazed and then sank behind the jagged mountain ridges.

All of this from the comfort of a bedroom with a commanding north western view of Mt Wellington!

Scope: Ziess 85T*FL on Vixen Porta Mount 2, 60X magnification.
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Old 18-04-2021, 05:39 AM
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GUS.K (Ivan)
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Enjoyable read Steve, thanks for sharing.
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Old 18-04-2021, 07:46 AM
Tropo-Bob (Bob)
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Thanks Steve. I did see an occultation of a seventh magnitude star on the same evening, which I found quite enjoyable. I did not see Tau Tauri; maybe it had already been occulated.
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