Occultation of Saturn by the Moon

Today, 14th May 2014, Saturn is occulted by the Moon, although this can only be seen from most Australia and New Zealand. I’ve set up my telescope in the backyard and now I’m taking some photos of the event. Although I’ll try to get better images later, let me show you what I’m obtaining now.

These three images show how Saturn is moving closer to the Moon:

Occultation of Saturn by the Moon, as observed from my backyard in Sydney. I used my Skywatcher Black Diamond Telescope D = 80 mm, f = 600 mm and my CANON EOS 600D, and a 20mm eyepiece projection, at 1600 ISO and speed 1/60. This is just a single frame obtained at 20:44 AEST (10:44 UT). I also used Photoshop to play with the levels/colours/saturation. Credit: Angel R. López-Sánchez.

Occultation of Saturn by the Moon, as observed from my backyard in Sydney. I used my Skywatcher Black Diamond Telescope D = 80 mm, f = 600 mm and my CANON EOS 600D, and a 20mm eyepiece projection, at 1600 ISO and speed 1/60. This is just a single frame obtained at 21:12 AEST (11:12 UT). I also used Photoshop to play with the levels/colours/saturation. Credit: Angel R. López-Sánchez.

Occultation of Saturn by the Moon, as observed from my backyard in Sydney. I used my Skywatcher Black Diamond Telescope D = 80 mm, f = 600 mm and my CANON EOS 600D, and a 20mm eyepiece projection, at 1600 ISO and speed 1/60. This is just a single frame obtained at 21:18 AEST (11:18 UT), the planet is “touching” the disc of the Moon. I also used Photoshop to play with the levels/colours/saturation. Credit: Angel R. López-Sánchez.

After that, I waited for 40 minutes to see Saturn reappears behind the Moon, as it is shown is the next three photos:

Occultation of Saturn by the Moon, as observed from my backyard in Sydney. I used my Skywatcher Black Diamond Telescope D = 80 mm, f = 600 mm and my CANON EOS 600D, and a 20mm eyepiece projection, at 1600 ISO and speed 1/100. This is just a single frame obtained at 21:59 AEST (11:59 UT). I also used Photoshop to play with the levels/colours/saturation. Credit: Angel R. López-Sánchez.

Occultation of Saturn by the Moon, as observed from my backyard in Sydney. I used my Skywatcher Black Diamond Telescope D = 80 mm, f = 600 mm and my CANON EOS 600D, and a 20mm eyepiece projection, at 1600 ISO and speed 1/100. This is just a single frame obtained at 22:05 AEST (12:05 UT). I also used Photoshop to play with the levels/colours/saturation. Credit: Angel R. López-Sánchez.

Occultation of Saturn by the Moon, as observed from my backyard in Sydney. I used my Skywatcher Black Diamond Telescope D = 80 mm, f = 600 mm and my CANON EOS 600D, and a 20mm eyepiece projection, at 1600 ISO and speed 1/100. This is just a single frame obtained at 22:15 AEST (12:15 UT). I also used Photoshop to play with the levels/colours/saturation. Credit: Angel R. López-Sánchez.

In the next few days I’ll prepare some few better (processed) images. Stay tuned!