Occultation of Saturn
Tuesday 22nd May 2007
Observers' Reports
I would like to offer my congratulations to all SPA members who observed the early evening
occultation of Saturn by the Moon on
May 22nd. As with the March 2nd event, this has been another widely observed event,
and many timings and images have been made. My thanks to all who contributed in
any way.
The next Lunar Occultation of Saturn visible from the UK, at night, will not take place
until the early hours of August 21st 2024.
Jon Harper
SPA Occultation Section Director
Wow! From 100% cloud for the disappearance to 0% for the reappearance! Wonderful views. The first full
occultation that I have seen, and it was a stunner.
More of David's work can be found on his website.
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What a great event. Using an 80mm f/7 refractor, at 28x magnification, Saturn was very
easily seen in the bright evening sky. The shape of the rings was very crisp.
Wonderful to see it disappear.
Reappearance was also easily seen at 28x. I also used 8x30 and 20x60mm
binoculars. A few minutes after reappearance, Saturn was seen with the
naked eye.
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The sky was completely cloudless all evening, and I was able to watch and image the whole reappearance.
An awesome sight - being able to compare the size of the two objects. This is definitely the
single most amazing sight I have seen through my eyepiece to date.
More of Matt's work can be found on his website.
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Here in Hornchurch, Essex, conditions were exceptionally good for the 22nd May event. I caught sight
of Saturn easily before the event, with the Moon as a guide. Although contrast was reduced, I was
surprised to find that the seeing was good. Using my 10" Dobsonian, it was not easy to track
Saturn, but I managed to get some timings. I have attached some pictures, which were obtained by holding the
camera to the eyepiece. These were taken after reappearance. It was the first time I had attempted
imaging like this, and I was surprised to obtain such decent results. There are 3 images at 48x magnification,
and one at 120x magnification.
I obtained the following timings:
Disappearance start 19:10:16 UT
Disappearance end 19:10:59 UT
Reappearance start 20:17:37 UT
Reappearance end 20:18:36 UT
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My wife and I both enjoyed the Saturn occultation, observed through wispy cloud, quite thick at times.
Saturn was never lost from visibility, except when the Moon got in the way. I am currently limited
to using a small 80mm scope, due to a back injury, but the event was comfortably visible. Indeed, I spotted
Saturn using a hand-held 10x50 binocular, prior to the disappearance.
Saturn is just visible through the murk on these images, taken using a hand-held compact digital camera at the
eyepiece of the 80mm telescope. The two images show the disappearance at the dark limb, and the reappearance
at the bright limb, above Mare Smythii, respectively.
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Yes! Occultation of Saturn observed from Sussex using a 50mm spotting scope on a tripod. Saturn
was rather pale against the bright sky, but the Saturnine-shape was clearly visible at about 25x magnification.
Disappeared at about 19:12 UT into 'thin air', because the dark limb was invisible (not yet dark
enough to see Earthshine). I guess I can count this as one of the very few daylight
observations of Saturn too!
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Posted via the SPA Observing Forum
Excellent view of the occultation from Chelmsford. Pristine viewing conditions. Didn't time
the event, but it was about 07:11 UT. Interesting to see Saturn gradually disappear over
about 10 seconds. Well worth the effort. Taking the dog for a walk now - hope the
reappearance is as good.
Follow-up posted via the SPA Observing Forum
Stunning view as Saturn emerged. Sky crystal clear for once. Good sight of Mercury as well -
in fact good sight of everything.
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Gregger submitted the following image to the SPA Gallery Forum:
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High Cirrus clouds but many transparent areas between, together with good seeing conditions enabled me to observe
the reappearance of Saturn above the lunar feature Mare Smythii. Despite the planet's dimness in comparison to the
lunar limb, it was perfectly possible to watch the entire event, from the moment Ring A made its reappearance to
the entire planet and its rings leaving the limb completely, even the shadow of the planet on the rings, and ring
shadow on the planet were clearly seen. The entire ring system was clear of the disc at 20:13:39 UT from this
location. The instrument used was a 9" f/6 Newtonian reflector with an 18mm Orthoscopic eyepiece.
The graphic was taken with a hand held Canon Ixus 300, several minutes after emersion of the planet and ring system.
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Posted via the SPA Observing Forum
Have just watched Saturn do its disappearing act. Very interesting to see, thanks Jon for bringing
this to our attention.
Follow-up posted via the SPA Observing Forum
Woohoo! Saw Saturn re-emerge then cloud rolled in afterwards. Almost as if the cloud was waiting.
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Beautifully clear.
Disappeared 19:06:50 UT.
Emerged (Start) 20:15:10 UT (Finished 20:16:20 UT)
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Posted via the SPA Observing Forum
Good view from Hartlepool also. Tried to get some digital pictures, but failed. Saturn was a lovely
creamy colour, much easier to see than I expected. Hope the gaps persist for an hour or so.
Follow-up posted via the SPA Observing Forum
By the time of the second event, colour was easily noticeable on the disc of Saturn. What were also well
apparent were the Limb mountain ranges around the Western edge of the moon.
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Around 90% cloud cover here, but I did get a few glimpses through my 60mm finder scope, in the
end. For a few seconds, Saturn was easily seen against the bright sky. I witnessed
disappearance; Saturn clearly faded away, and I timed it at 19:08:35 UT, using my
radio-controlled observatory clock.
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I was not very successful with the Saturn occultation. I tried using a
webcam with my Skywatcher 120 refractor, on an HEQ5 mount. I should have used my
10" Newtonian, which has given good results in the past (home made mount with
limitations, but excellent optics).
I seemed to loose Saturn in both scopes earlier than expected, and I only managed
to get one poor image a little while after Saturn emerged. There was some cloud at
the critical time.
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I know that these shots of the occultation of Saturn aren't going to win any prizes, but I hope they may
be of some interest to you. They are only my second ever attempt at astrophotography, and were taken with
my Kodak digital camera held to the eyepiece of my Revelation 12 inch Dobsonian, with a magnification of 166x.
The first few shots were taken with a filter on the eyepiece, as I'd been observing the Moon prior to the
event and forgot to take it off. When I downloaded the pictures onto my computer, Saturn wasn't visible in
the ones taken with the filter on, so I had to play around with the contrast, brightness and exposure
adjustments, available in the Kodak software, in order to bring out the image. This didn't do anything for
the quality of the finished product! As I said, they aren't great pictures, but considering the rather
primitive method used, I am pleased, if not surprised, to have obtained any sort of image at all. It was certainly
a tremendous event to watch!
I'll have a go at the occultation of Venus, if
conditions are favourable, and perhaps try and find some way
of attaching the camera to the telescope.
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Pete submitted the following images to the SPA Gallery Forum:
More of Pete's work can be found on his website.
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Martin submitted the following image to the SPA Gallery Forum:
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A lot of high thin cirrus, and much lower fast moving cloud, moving across from the northwest.
I set my scope up at 18:00 UT. The moon was visible, frequently, through gaps in the
cloud. At 19:55 UT I saw Saturn for the first time in the 203mm SCT, but not in the 50mm
finder. I was clouded out before the occultation started. I had occasional glimpses of the
Moon through gaps in the cloud, but I did not get another decent view until 20:24 UT,
by which time Saturn was well outside the Moon's bright limb.
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Posted via the SPA Observing Forum
Great view from Oakworth, West Yorkshire. Thin wisps of cloud in build up, but the disappearance was very clear.
I used a 23a filter on my 8" Dobsonian, which greatly improved the contrast and also enourmously improved the lunar views.
It was very easy to see, even without a filter. The event was immediately visible using a 25mm Plossl eyepiece, much
easier than I thought it would be. I used a 9mm eyepiece to view at 133x magnification. Nice detail on Saturn too. One post
here [SPA Observing Forum] said Saturn disappeared in 10 seconds, which seemed on the low side, to me. I timed the
event using an audio tape machine, and it took 42 seconds to disappear, as viewed from Oakworth. I saw the reappearance also,
but sky haze degraded the view. A really nice event, and fabulous views of the Catharina triple on the Moon with the 9mm and
23a filter, quite stunning detail.
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Tonight I was lucky enough to observe the lunar occultation of Saturn.
Skies were nice and clear for me when I got the Explorer 130M out at around 18:45 UT. By 18:51 UT
(yes, no time to let the 'scope cool down) I had Saturn in the eyepiece. This in itself was a
first for me. The Sun was still above the horizon - that's the first time I've observed that
planet during the day.
The view kept switching from being very hard to make out to being very clear, sometimes clear
enough that I could just about make out the planet's shadow on the rings.
The dark limb of the Moon wasn't visible at all so I had no visual clues as to how long I had to wait.
There were a couple of false starts where I thought I could see part of Saturn was missing. And then,
suddenly, it was really obvious that the Moon was cutting into the rings.
Sadly I didn't have a stopwatch with me so I had no way of timing how long the event took. It felt
like it was over in about 30 seconds. I know I was very surprised at how quickly it all happened.
It was all over by 19:06 UT.
Fast forward to 20:00 UT and the Moon was lost behind a load of cloud. I could see, towards the western horizon,
a gap, but I didn't hold out much hope for it getting into place in time.
Finally, at around 20:12 UT a gap in the clouds gave me a view of the Moon but, just as quickly, it went again.
By 20:13 UT a bigger gap moved into place and, through the 130M, I could already see Saturn. Part of the rings was still behind the Moon and over the next couple or so minutes I watched it fully emerge (Saturn was free of the Moon by 20:14 UT).
I just watched the gap between them widen for the next couple of minutes and, then, in a moment of madness
(not the first moment of madness like this), I grabbed my mobile phone and held the camera in it up to the
lens of the 'scope. This is what I got:
By 20:19 UT it had clouded over again.
Visit Dave's blog, or view
his observing log,
for a more detailed report of the occultation.
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This image was taken afocally using a Canon EOS300D through an LX200 GPS with an 38mm eyepiece. The camera was hand-held
at an exposure time of 1/60 second. The image was adjusted for brightness and contrast using Photoshop.
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Image: Occultation of Saturn (reappearance) at 20:16 UT. Taken with a (very) cheap camera held
to the eyepiece - no control over exposure times unfortunately.
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I don't know what feedback you get but I just wanted to say your occultation alerts
are very much appreciated. I sometimes forward them to a small observing group I'm
in (with appropriate accreditation to Jon Harper, of course), and I know they are
well received. Our observing group had fun with the Saturn occultation, with some of us
being clouded out, and some not. This was my observation:
I had my first view of Saturn and the Moon in the same FOV as early
as 19:20 UT, using the Vixen 4" Flourite and a polarizing filter. In
the 12" Mewlon (also with polarizing filter), at 120x magnification, and I could see
the Cassini division, some banding on the globe, the shadow of the rings
on globe, and vice versa - this with the Sun still above the horizon!
Awesome views.
The predicted time for my location was 19:10 UT. At about 18:55 UT,
the clouds started coming in. At 19:08 UT I lost sight of Saturn behind clouds.
At 19:11 UT the clouds thinned, but Saturn had already gone!
The cloud was so thick I didn't bother waiting for the reappearance, but
went to our observing group committee meeting. There was a line of observers (that I know
of), in the direction the cloud was moving, starting with Arthur,
Adrian, myself and Amanda, and of course Martin Hopewell in the
south of France who saw it all the way through. Arthur and Adrian
completely missed the disappearance. I just missed it, however, Amanda did see
it. The reverse was true with the reappearance, with Adrian just
catching last contact.
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Tonight's occultation of Saturn was my first. At 20:12 UT, a small part of the ring
appeared on the limb of the Moon. Within in the next minute the full planet was clearly
visible. Quite an amazing sight to see in the early evening skies.
More of Mark's work can be found on his blog.
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Despite the presence of some ominous looking strands of thin cloud spread across the early evening sky,
when I set up my telescope at around 18:10 UT, most of this had cleared within 10 minutes prior to this
event. I have only witnessed one occultation of Saturn before, on the 2nd March 2007, and that was a
grazing occultation, partially clouded out, so I had been eagerly awaiting this event.
I had never tried to observe Saturn in daylight conditions before, and didn't have high expectations of
being able to see anything of the disappearance behind the dark lunar limb. However, I started
observing with my Meade ETX 90 telescope at 18:50 UT. After lining up the red dot finder with the Moon,
focusing, and moving the view slightly to the left of the Moon, I was astounded to see a ghostly white
image of Saturn pop into view. What a truly amazing view, despite having to shield my eye from the
glare of the Sun, which was low on the west-northwest horizon. I struggled to make out the lunar limb,
at the point where Saturn would be occulted, and I couldn't quite detect the point of first contact
with the rings. However, it quickly became apparent that the occultation was underway, and sweeping
across the faint globe of Saturn. I managed to get a timing for the final disappearance, at
19:06:15.10 UT. Watching the last thin point of the ring structure disappear, behind some apparently
invisible object, was just incredible.
By 20:05 UT I was back at the eyepiece, having carefully checked the point of reappearance using Starry
Night, ready to witness the emergence of Saturn. Again, I had no real expectations, and suspected that
a significant proportion of the ring structure would be visible before I managed to spot it. However,
I was pleasantly surprised that I managed to see the tiny point of the ring system (viewed at 48x)
emerge from behind the bright lunar limb. For me, the reappearance was much more spectacular than the
disappearance, largely because the Sun was below the horizon at this point, and Saturn was much more
distinctive. I thought the planet had an almost translucent appearance when compared next to the bright
limb of the Moon. I'd estimate that it took no longer than one minute for the planet to fully emerge.
I continued watching for about 20 minutes after the event, as it was still very special to see these
two impressive celestial objects so close to each other. I don't normally 'do' astro-imaging,
preferring to take in the view with my own eyes instead; however, I couldn't resist attempting to
capture a hand-held image at the eyepiece. The poor result can be seen below, but it will serve as a
reminder to me of a fascinating event.
Combined with relatively clear skies, spectacular views of Venus during the day, and the sight of Mercury
in the late evening sky, the last few days have been very special.
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Both disappearance (difficult due to bright sky) and reappearance of the planet were seen, using a Meade LX10.
Method of timing: Stopwatch and MSF Anthorn radio controlled clock.
DD Difficult because of bright sky
First Contact : 19:09:38.6 UT
Second Contact : 19:10:13.9 UT
RB Much easier - a beautiful sight!
Third Contact : 20:15:29.6 UT
Fourth Contact : 20:16:47.7 UT
Well worth observing. My previous observation of this event was in the 1970's.
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| SATURN OCCULTATION REPORT FORM |
| Date : | 2007. 05. 22 |
| Observer : | Bertrand Thooris |
| Observing station : | Observatoire ASTROLAB-IRIS ll palingbeek |
| Nearest city : | IEPER |
| Longitude : | 02° 54' 35.9" E |
| Latitude : | 50° 49' 04.8" N |
| Altitude : | 41 m ( GPS - WGS84 ) |
| Timing (UT) : | T1- 19h 13min 48sec (first time recorder ) |
| | T2- 19h 14min 10sec 45ºº~ (start occultation disk of Saturn) |
| | T3- 19h 14min 23sec 15ºº~ (START of total occultation disk / ring) |
| 5 sequence of 1 minute : | Vidéo moon surface |
| | 19h 49min / 19h 54min / 19h 58min / 20h 04min / 20h 10min |
| | T4- 20h 21min 05sec 38ºº~ (first apparition ring A) |
| | T5- 20h 21min 15sec 40ºº~ ( apparition end of ring C) |
| | T6- 20h 21min 18sec 32ºº~ (start apparition disk Saturn) |
| | T7- 20h 21min 58sec 05ºº~ (end apparition disk Saturn) |
| | T8- 20h 22min 08sec 13ºº~ (apparition ring C) |
| | T9- 20h 22min 25sec 24ºº~ (END of total occultation of SATURN) |
| Timing recorder + instruments : | L200 / 2400mm - equatorial -motor Yes -
CCTV - cuno-timer - DCF77 - Monitor +time insert - Video-recorder |
| Conditions : | transparency - very good |
| | stability - fair |
| | global quality - good |
| | No wind - 14°c |
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A nice evening's viewing of an almost daylight occultation. Nice to see. The weather held out well,
and was quite pleasant. A successful observation, lovely to see the ringed planet disappear and
reappear from behind the Moon, and to be able to take timings of from my location:
DD = 19:10:10 UT
RB = 20:17:25 UT
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I observed it here, and the
contrast was lovely; darkening sky, bright crescent Moon
and the greyer, receding planet. I felt I saw more detail
on the planet in those conditions than one does in a
fully dark sky. My timings (digital stopwatch synchronised with the BBC time
signal for 21:00 GMT):
Complete immersion (including rings) 19:04:50 UT
Completely emerged at 20:13:33 UT
Slightly earlier than Jon Harper's timing, which, with the Moon moving W to E,
seemed to make sense.
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Just got back in from viewing this evening's occultation. Didn't see anything of the disappearance, as the sky
was 90% occulted by cloud. Perfect conditions for the reappearance though - certainly a dramatic sight, and
one I decided to view visually rather than via the webcam.
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Maintained by
Jeff Stevens. Last modified 4th June 2007.
