Occultation of the Planet Venus by the Moon, Sunday, May 16, 2010, Cebu, Philippines

[rodion_herrera]

I was in Facebook when a friend told me that she saw the planet Venus above the crescent moon. I realized I totally forgot that May 16, 2010 was the schedule of the occultation of the Planet Venus by the crescent moon.

So I hurried back to my boarding house to get my tripod. I then asked permission from the TGU Tower building security office if I could go up the rooftop, but they said I needed a permit for that, so I had no choice but to find ANY location that faced westwards.

I did eventually find one but I was in a really bad location--it was at the 4th Floor Parking Lot, and the only thing close to a window were a series of grill slits that faced west. But nonetheless, I set up my crude equipment (Canon S3IS bridge camera with a small sony plastic tripod) against those grills, and began to take my shots. I took a total of more than 50 shots (my cam was in sequence mode), and the following photos are fair/good blow-by-blow images of how the Planet Venus disappeared behind the moon....

7:22 PM, building in foreground is "The Walk", a cluster of diners at IT Park, Cebu City.

7:26 PM

7:30 PM

7:36 PM

7:37 PM First contact! Venus is now slowly sinking into the dark disc of the moon!

7:39 PM...no more Venus! It's behind the moon now...

And...as icing on the cake, I managed to take a video of the actual moment when Venus get's "swallowed" by the dark disc of the moon:

[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOEkoNcUpZI"]YouTube- Occultation of the Planet Venus by the Moon, May 16, 2010[/nomedia]

I don't really like "blitzkreig" astrophoto sessions, but in this case, it was satisfying to actually get ANYTHING, despite the lack of time/preparation.

-RODION

 

[tblaxland]

Excellent shooting :thumbup:. I noticed the Moon getting close to Venus last night and it was quite pretty, framed by some clouds and all, but the Moon was set by the time this occultation happened.

 

[rodion_herrera]

Thanks tblaxland! Yes, I think the window for viewing the actual moment of occultation was very narrow, and favored India and east Asia. Venus egress was at 8:22PM local, and both moon and Venus were already below my horizon by that time.

-RODION

 

[Notebook]

Fascinating images, good job you remembered.

N.

 

[rodion_herrera]

Fascinating images, good job you remembered.

N.

LOL I almost didn't remember! Thanks N!

-RODION

 

[Notebook]

Whish I'd seen it, too cloudy here, even if I had remembered.
The image reminds me of some book cover, maybe 2001, or one of its sequels?

N

 

[SiberianTiger]

Looks like the image on some oriental flags! :thumbup:

 

[KosmoKen]

Very nice! I wish I had a decent camera, the view has just been stunning at sunset here.

 

[orb]

The image reminds me of some book cover, maybe 2001, or one of its sequels?

It reminds me a bit an icon for the game: "The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind":

 

[Andy44]

Nice job, rodion! I noticed that your video shot was stopped down so that the moon was just a crescent, while your still shots look like your auto-metering stopped up due to the dark sky background. I think I like the video better, although it's cool that you can see the whole face of the moon in the stills.