Occultant of Saturn by the Moon - 14th May 2014
2014 is a great year for observations of objects in the solar system. There ends up being 3 occultations of the Saturn by the Moon. This was the first time that I had observed one through a telescope. The night was perfectly clear and so I headed home early to setup and get ready. It ended up being the first time that I was setup to take photos through prime focus so was a little uncertain how my images were going to turn out.
I knew that trying to take photos using the same shutter speed with the different brightness levels between the full Moon and that of dimmly lit Saturn would end in disaster. So after experimenting I found a balance between the two and was going to alternate between the two so that I could create a composite imagery/video.
System setup for the night is as follows :
- Meade LX200 GPS
- Canon EOS 7D in prime focus
- Laptop with Canon EOS Utility connected through to Canon EOS 7D
Canon EOS 7D camera settings :
- Shutter speed for Moon - 1/2000 of a second
- Shutter speed for Saturn - 1/125 of a second
- ISO Setting - 1600
Here are some pictures of the setup on the night.
Here is a composite of the Saturn just before it snuck behind the Moon. A stunning sight!
And a link to the final video.