Gamma Tauri occultation

[John Murrell]

There was a very clear occultation of Gamma Tauri by the moon tonight. The seeing between the clouds was very good. One of the good things about Polar Maritime  Air is that is very transparent and has good seeing but has clouds with showers as well.

 

I was thinking of imaging it but the difference of around 13 magnitudes between the Moon and Gamma Tauri makes this rather difficult if not impossible. It is left to the reader to work out how many bits of dynamic range you need in a camera to observe both without over exposure.

 

It’s a pity ther is no way of dimming the moon but keeping the star bright.

 

Still the terminator on the Moon was stunning and the occultation was visible to the human eye as being logarithmic it could cope (just) with the 13 magnitude dynamic range.

 

Hope you managed to see it.

 

Re-emergence against the bright sector will be even more difficult.

 

John