Transits of Titan over Saturn are relatively rare so I was anxious to capture one. However, a few years before they began I discovered that by a mean twist of fate all transits would occur at times when Saturn was below the horizon from my location. Titan revolves around Saturn in almost exactly 16 days. Miss one transit and you miss them all! I still wanted to record this rare event, next time wouldn't be untill 15 years. So I picked to especially nice transits, where both Titan and the shadow of Titan would be visible.

I had to travel to Hawai'i to see this event. The Onizuka visitors centre, near the greatest observatoria of the world like the Kecks, would be my viewing location. Unfortunately, as a twist of fate, the weather turned horribly wrong. I was able to capture the transit, but not in the resolution that I liked. The images above show the disc and the shadow. Although certainly not high grade, these are the only images I know of that show the ingress of Titan and shadow on the Saturnian disc. Even the Hubble, which did record this event, has no images of that phase.

So, after a long vacation in sunny Hawai'i I can still consider myself lucky to have seen the transit.