How often do we see an occultation of Saturn?

This year, Australian skywatchers will be treated to the beautiful sight of Saturn slipping behind the Moon, not once, but three times.

“There’s only a few times when the Moon is in a position to move in front of a bright planet. It’s quite rare — it’s been over 10 years since we last saw an occultation of Saturn from Australia,” says amateur astronomer and astroblogger Dr Ian Musgrave.

The Moon orbits the Earth once every 29-and-a-half days. As it does so, it is tilted at five degrees to the ecliptic.

“So the Moon can be up to five degrees above or five degrees below where the Sun would be at any point in its path in the sky,” explains Watson.

The two points in the Moon’s orbit that cross the ecliptic — known as the nodes — rotate over a cycle that takes 18.6 years to complete.

A lunar occultation of Saturn occurs at the point in the 18.6 year cycle where the Moon’s orbit is closely aligned with both the ecliptic and the orbit of Saturn (which has an orbital tilt of 2.49 degrees).

“That’s why we get occultations all coming in a pile,” says Watson.

Just goes to show. You wait all day and then three come along all at once.

Malheureusement, it will still be daylight here.

21:05!!!

That’s after 9 oclock at night.
It’ drizzling rain and overcast here.
So would you be able to film it with phone or would you not have enough exposure to see the stars or is that just a moon hoax meme?

Unlikely to be able to film with a phone – moon’s glare will probably block out Saturn before the moon itself does.

Time to grab smart phone loaded with astronomy goodies

heads outside

OCDC said:

Unlikely to be able to film with a phone – moon’s glare will probably block out Saturn before the moon itself does.

Yep. Saturn’s rather washed out already and it’s harder to see against the Moon’s glare than it was an hour ago.

I can no longer see Saturn, even if I try to block the Moon with my finger, or the eaves (I’m watching from a verandah).

Some thin high cloud here so couldn’t see Saturn, but on the bright side (SWIDT) I can see a 22 degree halo.

PM 2Ring said:

I can no longer see Saturn, even if I try to block the Moon with my finger, or the eaves (I’m watching from a verandah).

We’re overcast…………………..still.

I had a look before, but there only seems to be a moon out there. Thin cloud, I suspect. I watched the moon rise through horizontal wispy stuff while I was at archery.

jjjust moi said:

PM 2Ring said:

I can no longer see Saturn, even if I try to block the Moon with my finger, or the eaves (I’m watching from a verandah).

We’re overcast…………………..still.

yeah, shame that.

CrazyNeutrino said:

Time to grab smart phone loaded with astronomy goodies

heads outside

I have found that the “google sky map” app is off by about ten degrees lately. Many people online also think so.

interestng article

thanks OC

The Moon went behind some thin cloud for a while, so it would’ve been impossible for me to Saturn when it re-appeared. But it’s in clear sky now & I can see Saturn if I block out the Moon with the eaves.

PM 2Ring said:

The Moon went behind some thin cloud for a while, so it would’ve been impossible for me to Saturn when it re-appeared. But it’s in clear sky now & I can see Saturn if I block out the Moon with the eaves.

Um, “… so it would’ve been impossible for me to see Saturn …”.

Giant Ice ring around the moon

hand length distance from moon to ring

PM 2Ring said:

PM 2Ring said:

The Moon went behind some thin cloud for a while, so it would’ve been impossible for me to Saturn when it re-appeared. But it’s in clear sky now & I can see Saturn if I block out the Moon with the eaves.

Um, “… so it would’ve been impossible for me to see Saturn …”.

I know approximately how much knowledge you have, and hence I could believe that you could actually Saturn if you wanted to.

Kingy said:

I know approximately how much knowledge you have, and hence I could believe that you could actually Saturn if you wanted to.

:)

Thanks, Kingy.

God of Agriculture!

oh mighty one

Melbourne 20:50, 14 May.

My sheer chance I happened to be looking at the night sky (counting the number of stars visible to the naked eye in Orion, to see how star visibility was affected by time after sunset) from Melbourne 18:10 to 18:35 on 14 May. Didn’t notice Saturn. Perhaps hidden by combination of light cloud and moonlight, or perhaps didn’t look hard enough. Looked like a full Moon to me.

Occultation of Saturn, captured with camera phone

A Canberra science teacher has captured a rare occultation of Saturn using just a camera phone and personal telescope.

Paul Floyd, who has been an amateur astronomer for 30 years and teaches science at Giralang Primary School, was standing on the balcony of his Gowrie home in Canberra’s south with his wife when he took the picture with his Samsung Galaxy Note 3.

far out

I wonder when smart phones can do that without using the telescope

CrazyNeutrino said:

Occultation of Saturn, captured with camera phone

A Canberra science teacher has captured a rare occultation of Saturn using just a camera phone and personal telescope.

Paul Floyd, who has been an amateur astronomer for 30 years and teaches science at Giralang Primary School, was standing on the balcony of his Gowrie home in Canberra’s south with his wife when he took the picture with his Samsung Galaxy Note 3.

far out

I wonder when smart phones can do that without using the telescope

Never. Optically impossible.