A rare astronomical event was seen on Tuesday night (20) in the sky over Brazil: an occultation of the planet Saturn by the Moon.
In the early evening, a conjunction between the Moon and Saturn turned into a complete lunar occultation of the planet for the states of the North and part of the Northeast and Central-West regions, and a grazing lunar occultation for the rest of Brazil.
From Goiás, Brazilian photographer Gabriel Zaparolli managed to record the meeting of the two stars in the sky, moments before the complete occultation occurred.
“I set up the astrophotography equipment to capture the occultation of Saturn by the Moon, which would happen in the North and Northeast regions of Brazil. Here in Goiás, the visualization of the occultation was faster, lasting no more than 30 minutes, but it was incredible to observe such a ‘difficult’ astronomical event to capture in photos,” Zaparolli told CNN.
“I used an A7s2 mirrorless camera coupled to a 500mm astrophotography telescope from Oort Tecnologias. This combination provided incredible results,” adds the photographer.
Celestial conjunctions occur when two or more celestial bodies appear very close together in the sky — an optical illusion, as they are separated by thousands of kilometers in space.
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A lunar occultation occurs when the Moon gets “in front” of other celestial bodies as it makes its way across the night sky. Observing an occultation is a simple process that clearly demonstrates the movement of the stars across the sky, making it possible to time the disappearance and reappearance of a celestial body behind the Moon, for example.
A lunar occultation occurs in a similar way to an eclipse, when the edge of the Moon moves in front of a star, planet or other celestial body, hiding it momentarily until the body reappears on the other side of the Moon.
Observing a lunar occultation is usually only possible when the celestial body in question is sufficiently bright: as was the case with Saturn on Tuesday night.
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This content was originally published in Astrophotographer records “encounter” of the Moon with Saturn in the sky of Brazil; see on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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