On August 20, 2024, for all of us across the globe, the moon was up by about an hour after sundown and hung close to Saturn within the sky. It occulted – or handed in entrance of – Saturn for observers from Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa and Europe at 3 UTC on August 21. Get pleasure from this gallery from our gifted neighborhood of photographers. Additionally, discover the moon’s brightness. It seems to be so brilliant as a result of it was only one day previous Monday’s supermoon! For extra sky occasions, visit EarthSky’s night sky guide or watch a 1-minute video concerning the moon and Saturn. And on the subject of Saturn … did you know its rings are disappearing?
Pictures of the occultation
View at EarthSky Community photos. | Egidio Vergani of Italy shared this picture of the moon and Saturn and wrote: “Saturn goes behind the moon. The second during which the ringed planet hides behind our satellite to reappear after about an hour. The surprise of an occultation taken from Milan on August 21, 2024, at 4.30 am.” Thanks!View at EarthSky Community photos. | Egidio Vergani additionally captured this picture, at 5:30 am, and wrote: “Thrilling occultation of Saturn by the moon.” Thanks!View at EarthSky Community photos. | Makrem Larnaout from Tunisia shared this picture and wrote: “The moon is introduced as a 12-panel mosaic, every panel composed of 10% of 2K frames. Saturn was meticulously processed utilizing 8 x 5K video captures, with 35% of the frames stacked and derotated to match the precise time, with the final seize simply earlier than ingress. The ultimate composition is a single 15ms publicity taken throughout the occasion.” Thanks!View at EarthSky Community photos. | Roberto Ortu from Cabras, Italy, captured this picture and wrote: “On the morning of August 21, 2024, at 5:31 native time, the occultation of Saturn by the moon occurred. That is a picture of me taken from a video during which the lunar rim and the planet had been nearly “involved” simply earlier than the start of the phenomenon. You’ll be able to see the nice distinction in brightness and obvious dimension of the two celestial our bodies, with Saturn being many instances bigger but in addition vastly extra distant than our satellite. The occasion lasted about an hour.” Thanks!
Pictures of the moon and Saturn
View at EarthSky Community photos. | Felton Davis additionally photographed the moon and Saturn from New York Metropolis, however from that location, the occultation wasn’t seen. Felton wrote: “Cellphone photograph by means of an 8-inch Orion reflector, cropped however not touched up. Saturn remained 1 degree from the moon, there was no occultation.” Thanks!View at EarthSky Community photos. | Steven Sweet from Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, captured Saturn above the moon’s Mare Crisium. Thanks!View at EarthSky Community photos. | Chuck Reinhart from Vincennes, Indiana, wrote: “I elevated the publicity in a single photograph to spotlight Saturn after which decreased the publicity in the identical photograph to point out the small print of the moon.” Thanks!View at EarthSky Community photos. | John Van Allen from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, captured this picture and wrote: “This was one of the best of about 20 tries by hand.” Thanks!
Backside line: Did you miss the moon and Saturn shut collectively on August 20, 2024? Right here’s a gallery stuffed with photographs of the occasion.
Cristina Ortiz – primarily based in Granada, Spain – has been an EarthSky editor since 2021. “Since I used to be a child,” she says, “I may really feel that keenness for science and communication.” Cristina has a grasp’s diploma in translation and decoding, specializing in science and know-how. She has served as a translator, interpreter and proofreader in each science and know-how for numerous media organizations, together with Netflix, and for museums and different corporations.
