MOONRISE IN THE SUBURBS

On Wednesday 14 May in the early evening, Saturn is occulted (gets hidden) by the Moon as seen from most of Australia (and all of New Zealand). This is the second of these rare occultations, and was under reasonably dark skies.  The Moon is a very obvious signpost where to look in the sky and Saturn is the brightest object near the Moon at the time.

Although this event can be easily seen with the unaided eye, it is best seen in a small telescope so one can see the ringed world in detail as it vanishes behind the Moon. Saturn’s moon Titan will be occulted before Saturn, so you the Moon occults another planet's moon!

That was all very well, but unfortunately we had clouds and the event was not seen from our vantage point in Melbourne. However, here are some photos of the moon rising in the suburbs last night. The bright star above the moon and slightly to the left is Saturn.

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme.

And here is a video by Colin Legg in Perth, who captured beautifully the occultation:
http://vimeo.com/87319245