Titan transit of Saturn 20240801
For only the second time in my decades of planetary imaging, Saturn’s Moon Titan transitted across the face of Saturn. This particular event as very low on the bottom of Saturn and is difficult to make out. This image shows the moon about in the middle section of the bottom of Saturn (with a small yellow dash).
The imaging session started around 00:30 EDT and Saturn was both low in altitude and also in the light pollution dome of Kingston. Focus was difficult and a moving target. About one hour in, I refocussed again and this time it was better. So the first hour was pretty much tossed out.
It was warm.. about 19C and no mosquitos! There were some coyotes but they kept their distance.
After about 2.5 hours the exposure started to tank, I thought it might be clouds, but it turned out to be a dew heater strap on that was not turned on… the primary mirror fogged up.
This image is the best 10% of 5200 frames of approx 45ms each in a 4 minute run. Saturn was up to 36 degrees by this time and an airmass of 1.7, much better than the 20 odd degrees and airmass of 2.2 at the start.