grazing lunar occultation of saturn

they have chosen the top astronomy pictures of 2007 at APOD. there are some great shots, but surprisingly, they dont overlap with phit plait's astronomy images of the year. good thing we're making such good use of our telescopes!

my favorite shot by APOD, was taken in march when the moon passed just in front of saturn, barely blocking some of the rings and the side of the planet! a grazing lunar occultation!


to create the above image, pete lawrence of digital-astronomy, took one shot every 90 seconds during the occultation.... the moon is moving pretty quickly! then he adjusted each image so the light from saturn and the moon would contrast each other nicely instead of the bright moon dominating the entire image. then he added the frames together for this wonderful composite image!