Saturn Eclipse 2001

The covering of the planet Saturn by the moon on the evening of November 3, 2001 has been visible during a clear November night in Dreieich-Dreieichenhain, Germany and could be watched in its full duration. The moon and Saturn showed up some hours before the Saturn eclipse at north eastern skies. The still quite full moon (three days after full moon) went on to Saturn with its sun lighted side moving to eastern direction. Watching with the naked eye Saturn disappeared slowly into the glance of moon shine. Through the telescope the full beauty of Saturn set on the moon could be seen. About one hour later Saturn rose up again behind the dark side of the moon.

Saturnfinsternis (1)

Saturnfinsternis (2)

Saturnfinsternis (3)

The pictures have been taken through a Celestron C5 telescope (f=1250mm, D=125mm) and a Canon EOS500N camera using the eyepiece projection method (12,5mm eyepiece), exposed on Fuji200 negative film, in the range of 2 to 6 seconds. On the left Saturn over Moon's surface (21:55 CET), in the middle Saturn set (22:03 CET), and on the right the planet just having finished its rise (23:07 CET).

Due to eyepiece projection the view through the telescope and on the pictures are the wrong way round (east is right, north is down)