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OCCULTATIONS
Moon occults Venus. Monday 1st of December 2008
The years best astronomical event occurred
for once during a spell of perfect weather.
I made plans with my observing buddy Dave to head to the West coast to for the
occultation.
At around 2:30 we arrived at the Cliffs of Moher in Co. Clare. A fantastically
scenic spot, elevated
with magnificent vistas in all directions. The visibility was 100%. We could
plainly see houses
and roads on the three Arran Islands and even up as far as the Twelve Bens
Mountains.
The scene of The Moon, Venus and
Jupiter setting over the ocean with the Cliffs as a foreground
would have made for an awesome picture but unfortunately a stubborn bank of
cloud
thwarted my plans for the shot.
We needed to fall back to site B which was inland in the Burren to get away from
this obstruction
or else we would miss the whole occultation.
In my mind, seeing the event was paramount over imaging it.
We had quite a distance to go and no time as first contact was (we thought ) was
around 3:20.
You never really notice how many tractors and rent-a-cars are on the nations
roads until you are in a hurry!
We literally pulled into the site with minuets to spare.
I'd guess it took us little over 2 min to get our mounts, scopes & cameras
completely set up and to have Venus in the eyepiece!
After another few minuets the dark
edge of the Moon made first contact with Venus.
About half way across in 30 seconds Venus was beginning to disappear behind the
limb.
Looking up with the naked eye it was still very obvious then - blink - it was
gone.
During the time the Moon was
crossing the planet, we got a chance to have a break.
One of the grounds men at the Dolmen site approached us, I thought at first to
move us on but
it worked out that he is a bit of an amateur astronomer and was aware of the
occultation.
He even had a compact set of binos with him that were really quite good to see
the event.
We chatted for a while and he told us he loved looking at the stars from the
site.
He knew the constellations and had a better grasp of astronomy than the average
Joe.
But what a place to work! - Best skies in Ireland and your job is to be out
under them!
A few tourists arrived late
in the evening to see the Dolmen and asked us what was happening
so we were doing a little sidewalk astronomy to boot!
The time flew during the occultation. Poor Dave was bieng Mr. Polite and
chatting with the
people around him until I woke everyone up with a shout of 'It's Back!'
Our timing was slightly off for emergance but we just caught it exiting the
limb.
Visually there seemed to be a bit
of a sparkle, almost a mini diamond ring.
I remember one of the tourists saying 'it's beautiful like a diamond!'
The image in the scope was awesome.
I was using an ETX-125 scope and binoviewer with 2 65 deg FOV eyepieces.
The view was similar to the above shot but bigger, clearer and 3D.
The phase of Venus is distinctive
in this shot.
It was difficult to get one to show it the right way because the atmosphere was
very turbulent
at that altitude and time of day.
So as the time went by the Moon
pulled away from Venus and the sight in the sky
was one in a million.
I had 4 people call me to ask what was that next to the Moon!
Unfortunately the clouds moved in
at the end and blocked the scene, although it made for a spook sight next to the
Dolmen.
We packed up as quickly as before
but the temperature was -1 or 2
and the roads were totally iced over.
Took over an hour and a half to get home but all in all it was an excellent trip
although we were very lucky with the clouds.
I'm not sure when the next one is, there was one last year on the 18th of June
(see pic below)
but I'm not sure when the next good occultation occurs.
Suffice to say if it's clear, I'll be watching it!
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