Sequence of the occultation of Saturn by the Moon

DP ENGLISH: This story belongs to the series “Double Post” which indicates posts that have been written both in English in The Lined Wolf and in Spanish in El Lobo Rayado.

DP ESPAÑOL: Esta historia entra en la categoría “Doble Post” donde indico artículos que han sido escritos tanto en español en El Lobo Rayado como en inglés en The Lined Wolf.

Today Sunday I’ve used some of my free time to process the images I took last Wednesday, when Saturn was occulted by an almost full Moon. These are my two final images showing how Saturn first disappears behind the Moon and it reappears an hour later.

The Moon occults Saturn I: Saturn disappears.
14 May 2014 from Sydney. Data obtained using Telescope Skywatcher Black Diamond D = 80 mm, f = 600 mm, 20 mm eyepiece + CANON EOS 600D. All times are given in Universal Time, add 10 hours to get the local time in Sydney (AEST) that date. Images of Saturn obtained combining many frames at 1/60 and 1600 ISO using Lynkeos software + Photoshop. Image of the Moon obtained combining 20 best frames using Photoshop. Credit: Á.R.L-S. (AAO/MQ)

The Moon occults Saturn I: Saturn disappears.
14 May 2014 from Sydney. Data obtained using Telescope Skywatcher Black Diamond D = 80 mm, f = 600 mm, 20 mm eyepiece + CANON EOS 600D. All times are given in Universal Time, add 10 hours to get the local time in Sydney (AEST) that date. Images of Saturn obtained combining many frames at 1/100 and 1600 ISO using Lynkeos software + Photoshop. Image of the Moon obtained combining 11 best frames using Photoshop. Credit: Á.R.L-S. (AAO/MQ)

Getting nice images of Saturn was much trickier than I expected: the setup I used the other night it is not the best to observe Saturn, as more magnification and a good tracking are needed. On the other hand, the Moon was very bright so I had to use short exposition times, and hence Saturn appeared very dim. At the end I manage to get a kind of “master Saturn” combining the best frames I took during the night and later combine it with the data of each position to get the final view of Saturn at each time. For the Moon it was much easier, although you’ll perhaps realize that the second image is somewhat better than the first. The reason is that some parts of the Moon were actually saturated with the 1/60 seconds exposures, and that is why I later used 1/100 seconds for getting Saturn reappearing. In any case, I hope you like them.