Lunar occultation of Saturn

You'll need to strike a balance on 21 August to capture the Moon covering the ringed planet

- Peta Lawrence

Saturn is hidden by a rare and unmissable (unless you have clouds) lunar occultation on 21 August. The Moon will be in a 97%-lit waning gibbous phase at the time, so pretty much full. The occultation starts with dawn in progress.

Despite brightening skies, from the UK the event is completely viewable from start to finish. Imaging it will be more challenging, due to the increasing brightness of the dawn, but with care, a great capture of this exciting event is perfectly feasible.

The waning gibbous nature of the occulting Moon means it's the bright lunar limb that first encounters the planet (see page 46). The issues for this stage will be coping with the enormous dynamic range between Saturn and the illuminated lunar surface, but as this part of the occultation occurs under the darkest sky conditions, this should also provide the best contrast.