02 August 2014

Daytime Occultation of Moon and Saturn August 4th



Daytime occultation, second of this year will be of Moon Occulting Saturn. Earlier this year in February we saw Moon occulting Venus in the daytime, both Venus and Moon were easily visible because of their brightness.  
 

On August 4th, we will see Moon occulting Saturn in the daytime, but we will need telescope to see Saturn as the surrounding sky will be very bright.
Stellarium generated image.
 
The occultation will begin 2pm IST as seen from Bangalore, its always a good practice to start observing as early as possible. Saturn will disappear from dark side of the moon and emerge from the sunlit side at 2:40pm.
Do not try to locate Saturn with the telescope if you are new to finding planets during daytime. As bright Sun will be very close, accidental viewing of Sun through the telescope will be disastrous to the eye.
Here are the times and positions of the Planet for those who have setting circles
August 4th Occultation.
Time
Right Ascension
Declination
Altitude
Azimuth
13:45
15:00:00
-14:44:27
14:36
109:18
14:00 Start
15:00:00
-14:44:27
18:00
110:27
14:40 End
15:00:00
-14:44:27
27:15
114:20
 
Deg:Mins:Secs
Deg:Mins:Secs
Deg:Mins:Secs
Deg:Mins:Secs

Its a matter of luck to have clear skies in this monsoon season, but its always better to be prepared and hope for the best. 
Clear Skies