Conjunction of Saturn and the Moon (Aug 21, 2024)

On August 21, 2024, a breathtaking conjunction of the Moon and Saturn appeared above the eastern horizon, where the Moon actually covered the planet – astronomers call this phenomenon a lunar occultation of Saturn. In our location, it was visible in the morning hours; Saturn – with a magnitude of around 0.6 – hid "behind" the very bright Moon, which reached about -12.7 mag.

From an astronomical perspective, the closest approach (conjunction) occurred around 03:01 UTC (05:01 CEST), when both objects shared the same right ascension. During this extraordinary event, Saturn "disappeared" from our view for approximately an hour before reappearing in the already brightening sky.

For astrophotographers, this was a unique opportunity: to capture not just the rare alignment, but also the gradual ingress/egress of Saturn behind the lunar disk, featuring a stark contrast between the brilliant Moon and the softly glowing planet.

Acquisition

Photographing such a phenomenon is slightly difficult. The brightness of the individual objects is completely different, and the Moon shines much more intensely. It was therefore necessary to take two photos: one where the Moon looks good but Saturn is almost invisible (too dim), and a second one where the Moon was overexposed but Saturn was clearly visible.

I then composited the photos together; I placed the image of Saturn from the overexposed shot onto the spot where the faint smudge of Saturn was located in the properly exposed photo.