A rare occultation just occurred between Saturn and the blue supermoon , and stunning pictures have emerged thanks to the astrophotographers. The occultation on August 20-21 caused the supermoon to swallow the ringed planet from Earth's perspective as a result of their alignment in space. Tom Williams, an amateur astrophotographer, shared pictures of Saturn hiding behind the Moon using his telescope from southwest UK.
"Here the ringed planet is emerging from behind the silhouetted limb of the #Moon - the rough lunar terrain made visible as a result (sic)," he captioned his post shared on X. "Saturn rise" The Lunar #Occultation of #Saturn this morning, captured from southwest UK with my 16" scope. Here the ringed planet is emerging from behind the silhouetted limb of the #Moon - the rough lunar terrain made visible as a result.
Stoked with how this turned out! pic.twitter.com/f0KbRYX325 — Tom Williams (@tw__astro) August 21, 2024 Peter Lewis from London, also shared pictures of a tiny-looking Saturn peeping from behind the rugged and crater-filled lunar surface.
A few others posted pictures of the occultation, showing Saturn just before and after getting blocked by the Moon. ALSO SEE: Look At Saturn Like You've Never Seen It Before; Amateur Photographer Captures Clearest Image Of 'Ring Planet' More processed images from this morning's occultation of Saturn by the 98% full Moon. Saturn was quite dull, the Moon very bright so a bit of process 'twiddling' needed.
@StormHour @ThePhotoHour @MoonHourSocial #MoonHour #Astronomy #Astrophotography pic.twitter.com/KKNj3MhU2S — Peter Lewis (@PeterLewis55) August 21, 2024 Saturn and the moon.
pic.twitter.com/7VrUqnmd4C — Steven Wale (@NoviceAstroPic) August 21, 2024 Pas simple de gérer la différence de luminosité enter les deux astres .
.. #moon #Saturn #occultation pic.
twitter.com/9lhG1vRBT6 — ASTRO William🇫🇷🪐🌌 (@Astronomie62) August 21, 2024 The Moon covered Saturn at 04:32 BST this morning here a couple of images minutes before the occultation as seen from Midlothian. Unfortunatly the rings are almost edge on so Saturn for now has lost much of its usual beauty.
pic.twitter.com/Akbwqnriwy — Pictish Goose (@ItsInTheTrees2) August 21, 2024 Our club member Steve captured these images of Saturn 🪐 occulted by the moon in early hours of this morning pic.
twitter.com/t1xnoFvhua — Cork Astronomy Club (@CorkAstronomy) August 21, 2024 Ocultación de Saturno. La ocultación no la pude captar por ubicación, pero poco más de una hora después sí que pude con la emersión del planeta por el otro lado de la Luna.
En realidad hice vídeo y esto que muestro aquí son dos fotos de justo después. #Saturn #Moon #Luna pic.twitter.
com/wuPIrbf90N — Marina Prol (@marprol) August 21, 2024 #lunar #occultation of #saturn captured through breaks in the cloud from #somerset 🪐 #astronomy #astrophotography #moon #nightsky #space #celestial pic.twitter.com/Wp9dmGq9v7 — Josh Dury 🌌 (@Josh_Dury) August 21, 2024 According to NASA, the Moon-Saturn pair rose in the east shortly after dark and moved toward the west together until dawn.
The occultation was visible from north Latin America and the Caribbean, parts of west Africa and western Europe whereas most parts of the world witnessed a close conjunction between the two. Notably, this phenomenon happened on July 25 as well and was visible from major Indian cities . Interestingly, there will be another occultation event on September 17 later this year and it will be visible from western United States.
Australia, western Canada and north-western Mexico. ALSO SEE: Saturn Is Eating Off Its Own Rings, Says Scientists (Image: X/@PeterLewis55/@tw__astro).
