Gear set up for Occultation of Saturn by The Moon - 4/8/2014 18:00
The second occultation of Saturn by The Moon for 2014 was at First Quarter and near the meridian, a much better contrast opportunity that the one two months earlier which was near Full Moon and low to the horizon.
I decided to go for short focal length (F=576mm) to get a reasonable section of The Moon in field, which left Saturn quite small, but sufficiently resolved to clearly show the rings and the planetary disc.
Telescope - PowerNewt 200mm f/4 with PowerNewt(ASA) f/2.84 Reducer/Coma Corrector, No filter, Baader BCF modified Canon 70D DSLR field 90' x 134' , Ambient 12C. EQMOD EQASCOM with Ascom 6 for mount control. Backyard EOS Pro 3.0.3 for Image acquisition. Mount - Skywatcher NEQ6 Pro. Guidescope - Orion ShortTube 80 with Starlight Xpress SuperStar (Mono) CCD Auto Guider and Stark Labs PHD auto guiding software ... Unguided (Lunar tracking rate only)
