95 replies to this topic

[Jan Hattenbach]

Hi all, thanks for sharing all these great images!

 

Here's my contribution, handheld smartphone at eyepiece of 10" Dobsonian. From La Palma, Canary islands, the occultation started at 04:11 a.m., and because I needed some more sleep, I only watched the ingress. The photo was made less than 5 minutes prior!

 

cs,

Jan

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[Dave Mitsky]

I observed the occultation using the Naylor Observatory's 17" f/15 classical Cassegrain and its 5" f/5 achromatic finder scope.  The sky was very clear for the event, but it was quite cold and windy. 

 

Here's one of the hand-held afocal iPhone Pro Max 12 photos that I took with the 5" refractor prior to the occultation.  The lines across the Moon are crosshairs.

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[Dave Mitsky]

This is one of the afocal photographs that I took using the 17" f/15 classical Cassegrain.

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[Dave Mitsky]

The Moon is drawing nearer to Mars in this afocal photo.

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[Dave Mitsky]

Here's the Moon and Mars shortly before occultation.

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[12BH7]

I setup both the 12" and 8" SCT. With the 12" with a little magnification and the 8" with a nice wider view. My wife, who usually has little interest in these things, joined me. It was a beautiful site.

 

After, took the wife for a spin once around the galaxy by showing her Venus, Saturn, Jupiter and the Orion Nebula. 

[thedude_01]

It was a great event! I had my Oberwerk 25 binoculars and my 9.25 out. It cleared up in Leadville just in time for the event! I liked the view through the scope alot more, of course, but it was still cool seeing the event in the big binos!

[MrSyzygy]

North Florida experienced its usual weather for interesting astronomical events.  We were totally clouded over.  

I can relate. The same cloudy/drizzly conditions were here in Central Florida, so no pics. So it was nice to have all these great images available to browse through.

[evrimi]

Very tiny crop of an image taken at re-emergence.  Nikon Z8 with 800mm lens and 2x converter.  Boynton Beach, FL.

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[MrSyzygy]

We had clear skies in the Okanagan Valley for tonight's grazing occultation of Mars as the Full Moon passed in front of the planet.

 

Most of Kelowna, British Columbia with a metropolitan population of over 200,000, was in the northern partial occultation zone. Only a small part of Mars was hidden by the Moon that far north.

 

Five members of our local astronomy club observed from Summerland, BC (between Kelowna and Penticton). In Summerland about 75 to 80 percent of Mars was occulted, but the remaining sliver of Mars always remained visible in our refractors.

 

I joined the group hosted by Dave Gamble in Summerland because Mars would have been completely covered by the Moon at my house south of Penticton. A grazing occultation is more interesting than a total occultation.

 

This was my second grazing occultation of a planet. The day before 9/11 four of us watched a grazing occultation of Saturn at dawn from Washington's impressive Dry Falls State Park.

 

Alan Whitman

Agreed. Being in the position to see a grazing occultation surely has its benefits.

 

Seeing a planet get almost completely covered and then appear to reverse directions and become completely visible again is certainly a different experience. It can remain in that partially covered state for up to 10 minutes instead of just seconds.

 

Also, when one is near the graze path, they'll be amazed to see how different observations can be with just a 10-mile change in location.

[MrSyzygy]

I'm glad to see that so many participated in last night's event because the next Nighttime Occultation Of Mars event, visible to the United States, won't happen again for a long, long time.

 

The next two in 2031 and in 2035 aren't even worth mentioning. The first one will be extremely low in the sky with only the disappearance visible to just a small portion of the Pacific Northwest and just a few minutes before Mars sets; and the second one will be visible only to the extreme far southern tip of Florida. That's it.

 

So it won't be for another 13½ years until the next decent one happens in June of 2038!

 

And if you're looking for the next nationwide event, as this one was, well that won't happen until 2042!

[FXM]

Not my sharpest but the Moon and Mars images were captured simultaneously, no composite. Celestron 9.25 telescope, ZWO asi224mc camera 2x Celestron Barlow, Firecapture software and Photoshop.  It was very cool to watch and I do mean cool it was freezing. :-) Southeastern, PA

 

Glad I weathered it now that I see the dates for the next one.

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[B 26354]

Agreed. Being in the position to see a grazing occultation surely has its benefits.

 

Seeing a planet get almost completely covered and then appear to reverse directions and become completely visible again is certainly a different experience. It can remain in that partially covered state for up to 10 minutes instead of just seconds.

 

Also, when one is near the graze path, they'll be amazed to see how different observations can be with just a 10-mile change in location.

I've never managed to be in (or even remotely close to) a location that allowed me to see a grazing occultation. Watching a planet pop in and out of view for ten minutes (!) as it glides behind the mountainous lunar "horizon", would definitely be amazing.

[astrofun]

From Prince George BC, there was only a close conjunction as we were north of the occultation zone. Fortunately the sky cleared enough for me last evening to get a couple good shots at around 18:35 PST, the closest it got, with my Canon 60D attached at the prime focus of My SV 102T. I must say the view with an eyepiece at 81x was much more impressive than this photo with some detail noticable on Mars.

 

 

 

Doug Wayland

Edited by astrofun, 14 January 2025 - 06:13 PM.

[astrofun]

Another

[NinePlanets]

Grazing occultations of stars are fairly common, since there are a lot of stars along the moon's path. It is really neat to watch a graze of a decently bright star as it winks on and off behind the mountains and valleys of the moon's limb. It's best when it happens with a crescent moon, since some of the graze occurs on a portion of darkened limb.

 

There is a group called IOTA. (International Occultation Timing Association.)

https://occultations.org/

 

IOTA provides an opportunity for amateur astronomers to participate meaningfully in astronomy.

[abby_normal]

i watched it from san diego.  a very impressive confirmation of orbital mechanics.  at some point in my life i would like to

experience and asteroid stellar occultation.  the ability to predict where / when those will happen is just stunning.

[Napp]

Grazing occultations of stars are fairly common, since there are a lot of stars along the moon's path. It is really neat to watch a graze of a decently bright star as it winks on and off behind the mountains and valleys of the moon's limb. It's best when it happens with a crescent moon, since some of the graze occurs on a portion of darkened limb.

 

There is a group called IOTA. (International Occultation Timing Association.)

https://occultations.org/

 

IOTA provides an opportunity for amateur astronomers to participate meaningfully in astronomy.

 

i watched it from san diego.  a very impressive confirmation of orbital mechanics.  at some point in my life i would like to

experience and asteroid stellar occultation.  the ability to predict where / when those will happen is just stunning.

You can download the Occult tool from the IOTA website link in NinePlanets' post.  The tool enables you to forecast lunar, planetary and asteroid occultations for your location or any other location.  

[Lentini]

Wow, I had no idea this event was so rare. I didn’t know it was coming, but lucked into it. Had my little TeleVue out cooling by chance. It was beautiful, so I’ll be looking for similar in the future. Love all the pics folks are posting. 

[ButterFly]

i watched it from san diego.  a very impressive confirmation of orbital mechanics.  at some point in my life i would like to

experience and asteroid stellar occultation.  the ability to predict where / when those will happen is just stunning.

Definitely give it a go.  The only way to observe a twentieth magnitude asteroid with a four inch scope is through occultation.

[MrSyzygy]

Grazing occultations of stars are fairly common, since there are a lot of stars along the moon's path. It is really neat to watch a graze of a decently bright star as it winks on and off behind the mountains and valleys of the moon's limb. It's best when it happens with a crescent moon, since some of the graze occurs on a portion of darkened limb.

 

There is a group called IOTA. (International Occultation Timing Association.)

https://occultations.org/

 

IOTA provides an opportunity for amateur astronomers to participate meaningfully in astronomy.

Yes, and here's how to get started: http://www.poyntsour...ual/Preview.htm
 

[MrSyzygy]

i watched it from san diego.  a very impressive confirmation of orbital mechanics.  at some point in my life i would like to

experience and asteroid stellar occultation.  the ability to predict where / when those will happen is just stunning.

I'm going to attempt to see this one. It lasts for an amazing 14 seconds in duration, mainly because this particular asteroid is large. The path just happens to go over my house here in Central Florida. https://cloud.occult...U037310/2078205

[WillR]

Good thing a friend called about this. In January's Astronomy magazine it wasn't listed on their Calender of Events (page 31). It did say they were going to come close. 

After I got the call I looked closer and saw they mentioned it on page 35. Looks like it's going to cloud up here in NW Pennsylvania though. 

I also got some misinformation and missed the disappearance. I was under the impression it would be a near miss. I was busy with something else. When I slewed over to Mars, it was gone! Checked Sky Safari, and sure enough it was behind the moon.

 

Did catch it coming out though, now that I knew what was happening. Just beautiful, and even with it right next to the lunar limb, there was a lot of detail. The view of Mars at high magnification with the arc of the moon in the frame is as close to a fly by over the moon sensation as I have experienced.

[MrSyzygy]

I'd like to point out that there are more great images and animations of the occultation over at the Lunar Observing And Imaging and the Major & Minor Planetary Imaging forums.

[Bill Barlow]

Thanks for posting all the great pictures of this event.  I went out with my Stowaway and viewed it in 18F temperatures under clear skies..a rarity for this place for one time events.  The best views were with a Pentax 5 and 3.5 XW eyepieces (122x and 175x).  Could see quite a bit of setail on Mars including the polar ice cap.

 

Bill