The Occultation of a W=9.1 Star by the Planet Uranus and its Rings

Mon Apr 7, 2025

OWc page

 

The only place where this event has a chance to be seen, is the U.S. West Coast. However, twilight will be a problem, and low altitude too. The hope is to be able to get the occultation of the star by the rings of Uranus, especially the epsilon ring. However, the challenge will be the proximity to Uranus itself, at 6th magnitude. Darkening Uranus with a methane bandpass filter will help, but this will also darken the target star, lengthening the required integration time to get high enough S/N data.

         

2:56:06 UT or 7:56:06pm for the second passage through the Epsilon Ring. The epsilon ring is 100 km wide with internal structure worth trying to measure.

28 minutes to cross Uranus. So that's 28 min x 60s x 100km/diam Uranus