On Thursday, June 11th, at 12 pm PDT / 3 pm EDT / 19:00 UTC, Uranus, as viewed from Earth, will disappear behind a very large, obnoxious interloper. This is the day of the occultation of Uranus, as seen from small swathes of land and sea primarily in the Southern Hemisphere. Slooh will go live from the East Coast of Australia to catch a glimpse of Uranus, interrupted. The live broadcast will be manned by Slooh host Eric Edelman and Slooh astronomer Bob Berman. Viewers can ask questions to be considered live with the hashtag #UranusPhotobomb
Says Slooh astronomer Bob Berman, “Whether we call it an occultation, eclipse, or photobomb, it’s a very cool event when the Moon covers up that strange, green, often-mispronounced world. Since it will only happen over Australia’s part of the world, and won’t be seen from Europe or North America, Slooh will use Australian feed partners to bring us the real-time views.”
Uranus’s discovery in 1781 rocked the world, since no one imagined additional planets existed beyond the five known since pre-history. Turns out Uranus proved to be more than merely gigantic. It orbits with its poles “on its side” so that its seasons each last for 21 years. Add in its retinue of bizarre moons and its unique green color, and this planet — which can actually be faintly seen by the naked eye — is a worthy target on its own.
“Watching Uranus telescopically vanish behind the detailed, sunlit portion of the Moon and then suddenly emerge from the lunar dark side, should be pretty dramatic,” adds Berman.
Outside of the photobomb zone around Australia and New Zealand, observers in the rest of the world will see Uranus close to the crescent Moon in the eastern pre-dawn sky. This presents an excellent opportunity to spot this distant ice giant with a pair of binoculars or a small telescope.
Contact:
Eric Edelman
+1 877-427-5664 x3
eric@slooh.com
Uranus Occultation Broadcast Details:
Start time: Thursday, June 11th, 12:00 pm PDT / 3:00 pm EDT / 19:00 UTC
Link: http://www.slooh.com
Hashtag: #UranusPhotobomb
Embed (please link back to Slooh.com): <iframe src=“http://livestream.com/accounts/8724297/events/4065816/player?width=560&height=315&autoPlay=true&mute=false” width=“560” height=“315” frameborder=“0” scrolling=“no”> </iframe>
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Slooh makes astronomy incredibly easy, engaging and affordable for anyone with a desire to see outer space for themselves. Since 2003 Slooh has connected telescopes to the Internet for access by the broader public. Slooh’s automated observatories develop celestial images in real-time for broadcast to the Internet. Slooh’s technology is protected by Patent No.: US 7,194,146 B2 which was awarded in 2006. Slooh members have taken over 2.5m photos/140,000 FITS of over 40,000 celestial objects, participated in numerous discoveries with leading astronomical institutions and made over 2,000 submissions to the Minor Planet Center. Slooh’s flagship observatories are situated on Mt. Teide, in partnership with the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands (IAC), and in Chile, in partnership with the Catholic University. Slooh has also broadcast live celestial events from partner observatories in Arizona, Japan, Hawaii, Cypress, Dubai, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Norway. Slooh’s free live broadcasts of potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs), comets, transits, eclipses, solar activity etc. feature narration by astronomy experts Bob Berman and Paul Cox and are syndicated to media outlets worldwide. Slooh signed a Space Act Agreement with NASA in March 2014 to “Bring the Universe to Everyone and Help Protect Earth, Too.”
Related text & image:
http://main.slooh.com/event/the-moon-photobombs-uranus-live/?event_date=2015-06-11
