An occultation of the planet Saturn by the Moon occurs tonight! Starting around 11:40pm and finishing around 1 am the Moon will move in front of Saturn. This occurs a few hours before Full Moon. Despite the brightness of the Moon, the occultation should be visible with unaided eye and with binoculars or a small telescope. The occultation is visible from all parts of New Zealand and from Australia except the north east. A grazing occultation is visible from a little north of Brisbane. The graze path passes just north of North Cape. Times of mid occultation for some places in NZ are City Disappear Reappear Duration Auckland 11:52:59 12:38:51 +/- 44s Wellington 11:45:46 12:51:45 +/- 29s Christchurch 11:40:05 12:54:54 +/- 25s Dunedin 11:36:15 12:51:09 +/- 23s The duration gives the time taken by Saturns disk to move behind the Moon. Double these figures to obtain the approximate times for the start/end of the occultation of the rings. Fingers crossed for clear skies!
Posted on: Wed, 14 May 2014 02:05:35 +0000
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