Moon Saturn Occultation – 14 May 2014, captured 20 km north of Albury, New South Wales in Australia by space enthusiast and photographer Colin Legg. Occultation happens when “one object is hidden by another object that passes between it and the observer.” From Bad Astronomy‘s Phil Plait:
I suspect a lot of people will be amazed at how big the Moon looks compared to Saturn, but I had the opposite experience! I’m used to the Moon looking big in my telescope, and Saturn small(ish). Seeing them right next to each other is a stark reminder of just how whopping huge Saturn is. It was more than 1.3 billion kilometers away during this event, while the Moon was only 380,000 km distant!
Put it this way: Saturn was over 3000 times farther away than the Moon at the time. Like I said: Saturn is big.
In the archives: more videos about the moon (usually Earth’s) and Saturn.
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