Starship Asterisk*

Saturn at the Moon's Edge

Explanation: Saturn now rises before midnight in planet Earth's sky. On July 24, the naked-eye planet was in close conjunction, close on the sky, to a waning gibbous Moon. But from some locations on planet Earth the ringed gas giant was occulted, disappearing behind the Moon for about an hour from skies over parts of Asia and Africa. Because the Moon and bright planets wander through the sky near the ecliptic plane, such occultation events are not uncommon, but they can be dramatic. In this telescopic view from Nanjing, Jiangsu, China, Saturn is caught moments before its disappearance behind the lunar disk. The snapshot gives the illusion that Saturn hangs just above Glushko crater, a 43 kilometer diameter, young, ray crater near the Moon's western edge. Of course, the Moon is 400 thousand kilometers away, compared to Saturn's distance of 1.4 billion kilometers.

<< Previous APOD

This Day in APOD

Next APOD >>

Do planetary occultations help in calculating planetary orbits these days, or have we already got such precise knowledge that we don't need the measurements of exactly when there are occultations any more?

I wish to point out a video of the Gruppo Astrofili (Amateur Astronomers Group) of Piacenza, Italy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bt4a0rINZA
Enjoy!

Eclectic Man wrote: ↑Sat Jul 27, 2024 8:39 am Do planetary occultations help in calculating planetary orbits these days, or have we already got such precise knowledge that we don't need the measurements of exactly when there are occultations any more?

We have much more precise tools now. But occultations of stars by asteroids and more distant solar system bodies remains a useful way of refining orbital data.

Western USA will get a similar view just before sunrise on September 17th, and Saturn's opposition is September 8th, so even as dim as the light from Saturn can appear next to the moon, this will be about as bright as it gets. All the Hawaii observatories should have a nice view, I hope somebody does a livestream.