Mesmerizing Video of Saturn Disappearing Behind the Moon

A slow-motion videographer captured ultra-clear footage of Saturn at an angle that makes it appear to set on the moon.

Australian amateur photographer Colin Legg captured the moments just before the moon moved in front of the planet.

Saturn and the planet's rings can be seen quite clearly in the amateur video (Image courtesy Colin Legg).

Saturn's rings - though tiny in the video - still pop brightly against the clear, blue Australian skies.

Though not exactly common, the event - called occultation - technically refers to any time a celestial body passes in front of another, blocking it from view. Gizmodo said it's "like an eclipse's big brother."

Occultations are visible in our skies once or twice a year in our sky, though the Saturn-moon combination is more rare, since the two bodies orbit on slightly different planes.

Seeing the far-off ringed planet is striking, but even watching the slow rotation of the moon is worth a few minutes in this video.

Colin told TheBlaze he was happy to share the video captured from Perth, Western Australia, at dawn. To see more incredible views, visit his Facebook page

Captured

Equipment: Celestron C8, f/10, prime focus. Canon 5D2, running Magic Lantern RAW video firmware in 3x crop mode @ 1880 x 1056 resolution. 1/60 sec exposure, ISO 200, 10 fps.

This story has been updated.

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(H/T: Gizmodo)

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