Occultation of Saturn

Photo by Ann Cairns

This wonderful photo of the Moon about to occult Saturn was taken by SCS committee member Ann Cairns.  Ann took the photo on the eastern grassy area of Sydney Observatory using a mobile phone camera held up to the eyepiece of a 4” (10 cm) Skywatcher refractor telescope in 2018. 

The photo demonstrates that getting started in astrophotography can be as simple as holding your smart phone up to a telescope eyepiece.  The photo is also a good follow up to Dr Andrew Wood’s February 2026 presentation on ‘Observing and Imaging the Moon’ where Andrew discussed different options for imaging the Moon, including smart phones. 

And the photo serves as a segue into the upcoming March 2026 presentation on occultations (‘Welcome to the Dark Side of Astronomy’) by Blue Mountains astronomer Dave Gault.