Early this morning, at around 5.30 am, Malta joined several countries in Western Europe and North Africa in witnessing a rare celestial event known as lunar occultation.
This phenomenon occurs when the moon covers planets or stars that align directly behind it as it orbits Earth. With the moon being its closest and largest this year, it easily obscured Saturn, which is approximately 1.3 billion kilometres away.
As the occultation began, Saturn and the moon were low in the sky, but as the event progressed, the ringed planet remained near the moon throughout the night.
However, viewing Saturn’s rings and moons required high-powered binoculars or a telescope, making the spectacle difficult to see with the naked eye.
Maltese photographer Alexei Pace captured this extraordinary event by aiming his Canon 6D and Celestron C14 telescope towards the southwestern sky as Saturn set in the Aquarius constellation at 5.41 am local time.
Pace managed to photograph Saturn as it disappeared behind the 97% illuminated waning gibbous moon.
“After 45 minutes, Saturn reappeared from behind the Moon’s dark edge, concluding the celestial alignment,” Pace wrote in a blog post, describing the impressive sight witnessed by dedicated observers despite the brightening dawn sky.
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