Graze of Saturn c 1997 Mortfield/Phelps

Parts of the 16 minute video from the September 18, 1997 Graze of Saturn by the Moon, taken from just south of San Jose, California. From our location, Saturn just skimmed along the edge of the moon which covered one half of its rings. This was a joint effort where I used William Phelps' great telescope combined with my special video camera AND the luck of some incredible clear sky. In the actual video, Saturn takes up 1/4 the width of the TV set, with Cassini's division and band structure easily visible from across the room. Thanks to Rick Baldridge of the Peninsula Astronomical Society for doing the frame grabs for the animation. Portions of the actual video were aired on KPIX-TV in San Francisco.