Photographing Spica and the Moon during the day

(Posted 6 January 2013) As per my tweets yesterday, the Moon occulted Spica (brightest star in the ancient Greek constellation Virgo The Virgin) this morning. We had some big storms sweep through last night and I was expecting it to be cloudy this morning. I was therefore surprised to be greeted with a clear sky when I got up for my jog this morning.

Spica was quite easy to see (above) with the unaided eye when I first got up. It doesn’t appear that bright in the above image compared to the bright Moon.  This is a pre-occultation image.

After getting back from my jog, I grabbed my 70 mm binoculars and was pleasantly surprised that I could see Spica with them (around 6.45 am AEST). My experience with seeing stars during the day is that you usually require a telescope to see stars during the day. It is interesting to note that by 7 am AEST I was having trouble seeing Spica with the binoculars. This would have been due to the brightening sky. The above image is a post occultation shot of Spica and the Moon.

And as an aside, if you live in Southern Australia and you didn’t see the Spica occultation this morning, you will have to wait until at least 2024 for your next opportunity to see one.