Dave Mitsky
03-March-2005, 02:32 PM
My friend Tony Donnangelo and I were fortunate enough to witness this morning's occultation of Antares (Alpha Scorpii) from his residence. It was quite cold and windy. The skies had been fairly clear until just prior to the occultation when clouds began obscuring the 53% illuminated Moon. However, we were able to see Antares (magnitude 1.1) as the Moon covered it.
I watched the bright western limb of the Moon grow close to Antares through Tony's 102mm f/8 Takahashi FS-102 apochromat at 137x (3-6mm Tele Vue Nagler zoom set at 6mm) and took some prime focus shots with my Canon Digital Rebel DSLR camera. I observed the actual occultation through my 80mm f/5 Orion ShortTube 80 achromat at 57x (7mm Nagler Type 6). Tony announced when he could no longer see the red giant. I timed the occultation as occurring at 6:05:16 a.m. EST (11:05:16 UT), give or take a second or two.
http://www.lunar-occultations.com/iota/bst.../0303zc2366.htm (http://www.lunar-occultations.com/iota/bstar/0303zc2366.htm)
Before leaving, I had a look at Jupiter through the FS-102 at 137x. Io, Europa, and Ganymede formed a narrow triangle, while Callisto hung well back from Jove.
Dave Mitsky
I watched the bright western limb of the Moon grow close to Antares through Tony's 102mm f/8 Takahashi FS-102 apochromat at 137x (3-6mm Tele Vue Nagler zoom set at 6mm) and took some prime focus shots with my Canon Digital Rebel DSLR camera. I observed the actual occultation through my 80mm f/5 Orion ShortTube 80 achromat at 57x (7mm Nagler Type 6). Tony announced when he could no longer see the red giant. I timed the occultation as occurring at 6:05:16 a.m. EST (11:05:16 UT), give or take a second or two.
http://www.lunar-occultations.com/iota/bst.../0303zc2366.htm (http://www.lunar-occultations.com/iota/bstar/0303zc2366.htm)
Before leaving, I had a look at Jupiter through the FS-102 at 137x. Io, Europa, and Ganymede formed a narrow triangle, while Callisto hung well back from Jove.
Dave Mitsky