It ’s tough to deny the lulu of the heavens as our satellite careen around the Sun in a cosmic dance . Saturnis especially strike with its one thousand of ringlets , believed to be the shatter cadaver of asteroid , comets , and moons – displume apart by the powerful graveness of the celestial ball of hydrogen and helium .
To photograph such wonder is not leisurely . To capture Saturn as it slips behind the synodic month 1.4 billion kilometers ( 900 million miles ) out is a unnerving effort that requires just the right engineering to achieve . That is precisely what astrophotographerCory Schmitzbased in South Africa did on March 29 during the lunar occultation of Saturn . This eclipse appears when Saturn ’s scope ducks behind the cratered eubstance of the Moon . The event took a total of 1 hr and 44 minutes .
“ I love these astro events . They get my blood pumping , ” spell Schmitz on hisInstagramaccount . “ This is my first cranny at processing the information I pull together during the # occultation of # Saturn by the # moon , just before sunrise on Friday morning , viewable from South Africa . About three minutes after this , Saturn melt from sight , hidden by the moon . ”
The image is a composite made from two sets of RGB data , a necessity due to the majuscule brightness of the Moon equate to Saturn from the lens of his camera . to unwrap both in one last look-alike , he used a higher increase for Saturn than for the Moon . He then sue each image separately and fuse them into a final product , which can be consider as a flipbook of images that reveal the progression of the planet as it evanesce from horizon .
For those of you who want to sleep with more about the expert specifics , Schmitz has you deal .
“ I used a @zwoasi 290MM monochrome camera and a motorized filter wheel , the imaging telescope was a 12 " RC . I used FireCapture and some custom scripts to automatise the summons as much as possible . "
It look like 2019 will be aprime yearfor Saturn eclipse , with around 14 hap this twelvemonth . Four have already transpire . Check out theawe - inspire videobelow .
[ H / tetraiodothyronine : Universe Today ]
