Stargazers enjoy the splendor of August “Sturgeon Moon” – also a blue supermoon — On August 20, you may have noticed something strange: a planet disappears from the sky.
In the early morning hours, the moon obscured the bright planet or passed completely in front of it. Saturnwhich seemed to smother the light of the Ringworld for more than an hour. The rare Saturn’s lunar occultation was only visible from parts of South America, Europe and Africa. But don’t worry if you missed it — Astrophotographer Josh Dury managed to capture the entire event from his location in Somerset, England.
Dury’s image was taken between about 4 and 5:30 a.m. local time (11 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. EDT), and combines 30 individual exposures into a single epic time-lapse that captures the entire course of the lunar occultation. Saturn’s rings are clearly visible as the planet slips behind the northwestern edge of the full Moon and reappears in the east about an hour later. Although the two objects appear to share the same patch of sky, Saturn is actually hundreds of millions of miles farther away, making the occultation a cosmic optical illusion, similar to a Solar eclipse.
The moon appears particularly large and bright right now because it is a supermoon – a full moon orbiting within 90% of its closest point to Earth, also known as perigee. At perigee, the moon can appear about 15% larger in diameter than at its farthest point from Earth (apogee) and can also appear significantly brighter, according to NASAAugust’s full moon is the first of four consecutive supermoons, giving skywatchers plenty of opportunity to admire our lunar companion this fall. Make sure you have a pair Binoculars for stargazing or a good small telescope to make the most of the upcoming close-up images of the Moon.
Related: The 10 best stargazing events of 2024
If you missed the occultation of Saturn this week, depending on where you live, you may have a chance to see the next one in September. In the early hours of September 17, the moon will appear to engulf the ringed planet again. This time, observers in parts of Australia and the western United States will have the best view, according to In-the-Sky.org.
This has been a busy month for stargazers. vivid northern lightsA Planetary conjunction and the Perseid meteor shower all of them light up the night sky. Just a week ago, Dury hiked to the astronomically suitable site of Stonehenge to capture dozens of “shooting stars” that fell over the ancient monument, where he recorded another beautiful composite image of the dazzling celestial spectacle.
There are many more sky observing events planned for 2024, including some of the the best meteor showers of the yearSo get out, look up and enjoy.
