Hello astronomy fans! Steve and I got out on Saturday night, and the first thing he asked was "What's that bright spot on the dark part of the Moon?" I took a look, but misunderstood him. He was looking at a mountaintop just west of the terminator that was being lit up.
I looked to the west of the lunar limb and noticed a bright star (mag. 4 or 5) with 2 8th mag. companions equidistant by about 2 arcminutes on either side. It was going to be occulted by the Moon!
I just had time to set up and caught the last five minutes of when the bright star and it's upper companion disappeared within 5 seconds of each other. The lower companion star was clipped 50 seconds after that. The time was 8:20:00 for the bright star, 8:20:05 and 8:20:50. This was the 2d occultation of the year for us and by far was the best event of that type.
We also observed Uranus and its close approach to 44 Piscium (1.4') Absolutely wonderful. Steve nailed M34, M36, M38 and M37 for his Messier tally. He now stands at 30. AGNFA!