Saturn's Large Moon Titan Will Occult an 8th Magnitude Star July 9th

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petemn2004
Posts: 235
Joined: Tue Aug 31, 2004 5:01 pm
Real Name: Mark Petersen
Location: Maple Grove, MN

Saturn's Large Moon Titan Will Occult an 8th Magnitude Star July 9th

Post by petemn2004 »

Saturn's large moon Titan will occult an 8th magnitude star the morning of Saturday July 9th and will be visible from Minnesota, clouds permitting.

The altitude of Saturn above the horizon will be 30 degrees and almost due south.
Time of the occultation is around 4:18 AM CDT.

Check out the links below.

Mark


From the Solar Eclipse Mailing List (SEML@groups.io):
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For July 9th Titan occultation, extensive updates and a good 1989 video
David Dunham
12:47am #30374

IOTA's main Web page about the occultation has been extensively updated; see it at https://occultations.org/publications/r ... 9Titan.htm
Especially, we've added the video recording of the spectacular 1989 July occultation of 28 Sgr by Titan made by Hans Bode from Hannover, Germany; it shows a strong central flash, as well as brightening spikes during the gradual (about 30s) D and R. Please look at the video; it should whet your appetite, to encourage you to observe the July 9th occultation (a week from now). New information has also been added to the .pdf document linked to at the top of the page, or directly at https://occultations.org/publications/r ... 9Titan.pdf . Included is more advice for observers, especially the fact that the central flash zone will be about 200 km across, about 5 times wider than I indicated in the first (June 28) version of the page and document. When you click on the links, be sure that the date given at the top of the page is "Updated 2022 July 1"; if instead it says June 28, refresh. I'll write some more about the new information in a separate message later today (July 2).

David
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Excerpt from digging down a link:
The 1989 July 3 occultation of 5th-mag. 28 Sagittarii by Titan
The last really bright occultation of a star by Titan occurred 33 years ago, on 1989 July 3, when both Titan
and Saturn occulted 5th-mag. 28 Sagittarii
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Sureshks
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Re: Saturn's Large Moon Titan Will Occult an 8th Magnitude Star July 9th

Post by Sureshks »

Hi Mark,

Thank you for the heads up!

I'm adding a couple Sky Safari images from 4:13am CT next Saturday morning that show Saturn & its major moons, and then a close-up of Titan & the star. It looks like the entire occultation will last approximately 4 minutes.

This will happen with morning twilight well underway. Astronomical Dawn is at 3:11am, Nautical Dawn is at 4:12am and Civil Dawn is at 5:00am. Sunrise will be at 5:36am.

Suresh
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clayton
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Re: Saturn's Large Moon Titan Will Occult an 8th Magnitude Star July 9th

Post by clayton »

Thanks Mark
Clayton Lindsey
petemn2004
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Re: Saturn's Large Moon Titan Will Occult an 8th Magnitude Star July 9th

Post by petemn2004 »

I tried to observe the occultation of 28 Sagittarii by Saturn on July 3, 1989 from Maple Grove.

It was about 12:30 AM and Saturn was closing in on 5th magnitude star, 28 Sagittarii. It was a hazy night and thickening clouds were moving in from the west. By the time Saturn got to 28 Sagittarii the clouds blocked my view of Saturn.

I had a friend observing from the eastern metro area and he observed the Saturn passing over the star for a little while. He said the star dimmed and subsequently brightened multiple times as the star appeared to traverse the rings. The change in brightness was caused by the many divisions in the Saturn ring system as photographed by the Voyagers and Cassini spacecraft.

Mark
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kibatme
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Re: Saturn's Large Moon Titan Will Occult an 8th Magnitude Star July 9th

Post by kibatme »

My experience with the 1989 event is detailed in the October 89 issue of Gemini. I've long since lost the raw data I collected from the event, but a summary of the results and a description of the process I used are included in the article. I still have a Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 102 computer (not the same one mentioned in the article) though with its 8 line 40 character LCD display and 32K of RAM (top of the line back in the day!) its only purpose is as a nostalgic reminder of days gone by.

As intriguing as the upcoming event might be, I'm on the fence re: observing it given it occurs so near the dawn. Though using the gear at ELO might make it worth an attempt...thoughts?
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