Astroblog: Occultation of Saturn by the Moon 14 May, 2014

Tuesday, May 06, 2014

Occultation of Saturn by the Moon 14 May, 2014


The Moon at 8:02 pm ACST in Adelaide on 14 May just before the Moon covers Saturn. Similar views will be seen elsewhere at the equivalent local time. See table below for exact local times. Click to embiggen.	Telescopic view of the occultation. Saturns' giant moon Titan is just about to go behind the Moon. Simulated in Stellarium. Click to embiggen.

On the evening of Wednesday 14 May Saturn is occulted by the Moon as seen from the most of Australia (and all of New Zealand). This is the second of these rare occultations, and is under reasonable dark skies, rather than daylight like last time.

The Moon is a very obvious signpost where look and Saturn will be the brightest object near the Moon. Start watching about half an hour before hand to get set up and familiar with the sky.

Although this event is easily seen with the unaided eye, it is best seen in a small telescope so you can see the ringed world in detail as it vanishes behind the Moon. Saturn's moon Titan will be occulted before Saturn, so you can see the Moon occult a moon.

The occultation occurs in the early evening with the Moon will be reasonably high above the north east horizon, a good time to show the kids this event. The Moon easily visible and a ready signpost to Saturn. It is advisable to set up and practise on the Moon a day or so before the event, so you are familar with your telescope set-up.

Set up at least half an hour ahead of time so that you can be sure everything is working well and you can watch the entire event comfortably (trying to focus your telescope on Saturn moments before the occultation will cause a lot of unnecessary stress). Saturn will be clearly visible in a telescope or binoculars near the Moon.

Place	Disappears Dark Limb	Reappears Bright Limb
Adelaide ACST	20:09	21:17
Brisbane AEST	21:05	21:35
Canberra AEST	20:53	22:00
Darwin ACST	20:06 (graze)	-
Hobart AEST	20:59	22:11
Melbourne AEST	20:50	22:00
Perth AWST	18:26	19:24
Sydney AEST	20:56	21:59

More cities in Australia and New Zealand cities can be found at the IOTA site (UT times only).

Labels: Moon, Occultation, Saturn

# posted by Ian Musgrave @ 4:51 pm

Comments:

Great post. I made a video about the occultation and linked to this page.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhMdNGXzC5U

# posted by

Wonky Astronomer : 9:36 pm

Hi,

went outside last night with my D4 and a 400mm prime lens with a 1.7 teleconverter to see what images I could get of the occultation of Saturn by the moon. I have a link to my website page showing my efforts if anyone would like to see.

http://gswatty.smugmug.com/Nonsporting/Moon/Occultation-of-Saturn-by-the/

kind regards
Granr Schwartzkopff

# posted by

gswatty : 6:32 am

Thank you for the advice and timings. Great viewing conditions from our back yard in Norwood and using our telescope. How long before this happens again I wonder?

# posted by

Karin : 5:18 pm