Jupiter occultation by the moon 10/06/26
In 2026, I experienced a rare occultation of the planet Jupiter by the moon. After over 50 years of astronomical observation, I had never seen this planet occulted by the moon. Even more interesting that both the disappearance and reappearance were visible from my home. I approached this event like I would approach an eclipse. I set up multiple telescopes and multiple cameras wanting to record the event. The results were very good.
This sequence shows the entire event. It was taken with a Nikon D3300 (ISO 800) and a 10-inch F5 Sky Watcher Go-to reflector. Exposure time was 1/4 second.
These three images show the reappearance of Jupiter and its moons taken with a Nikon D3200 (ISO 800) and a 500mm F6.3 lens. Exposure time was 1/4-second. The system was not tracked so the motion of the moon and the planet are visible in the images. The images were 150 seconds apart.
This sequence shows the planet, and its moons, disappearing behind the lunar crescent. This was shot with a Canon R100 camera (ISO 800) and a 10-inch F10 SCT. Exposure time was 1/4 second. The reappearance sequence was not acceptable because I adjusted the camera but did not refocus. The result was the image was out of focus.
This image was taken with a SVBONY 715c camera and a Zenithstar 61 refractor. The moons were (from right to left in this image) Europa, Callisto, Io, and Ganymede.
