Sunday, December 08, 2024

Lunar occultation of Saturn (December 2024)

There was a lunar occultation of Saturn tonight. This happens when Saturn appears to go behind the moon. Due to the distance between the Earth, moon, and Saturn, and the sizes of the moon and Saturn, such an event is only visible at certain times in certain parts of the world. I happen to be living at a place where it was visible this time. So I took out my camera and tripod to try and take some photos.
 
You can see Saturn just before it goes behind the moon.

 
Saturn almost gone (need to zoom in)
 
Saturn as it starts to reappear from behind the moon.

I was lucky that there were no clouds during this time, but the wind was very strongly resulting in the camera being a bit shaky and the photos turning out a bit blur. In the end, I had to use GIMP to sharpen the images a bit, but it still didn't help make Saturn appear clearer. Sigh.
 
Another lunar occultation that I managed to photograph:
 

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