saturn occultation
The Moon is set to photobomb Saturn in an eclipse. Nasa

The moon is set to photobomb Saturn in an occultation event being broadcast live from Australia.

The 'interactive observatory' of Slooh telescopes will be used to live stream the event, when the moon will pass in front of Saturn.

Hosted by Geoff Fox, with commentary from Slooh astronomer Bob Berman, the broadcast will begin at 12pm GMT. The moon will appear between Mars and Saturn before moving eastwards until it covers up the latter ringed planet.

Berman said: "Such an eclipse is called an 'occultation', and it's quite dramatic when it involves a bright, photogenic object like Saturn, whose rings are now nearly optimally tilted. Slooh's live feeds from Australia will capture the actual eclipse of Saturn by the Moon, with striking detail visible on the foreground Moon and the background planet – a true photobomb moment. This is one of those don't-miss events."

People living in parts of the Eastern Hemisphere, including Australia, will be able to see the occultation without a telescope, the astronomer added. "Saturn will look like a bright star," they note.

Before the start of 2014, Australia has not had an occultation of Saturn for over 10 years. In total there will be 11 occultations of Saturn this year, with three of these visible from Australia.

According to ABC News, these events can be irregular. Some years, no occultations are visible from any part of the planet, with these gaps lasting between two and five years.

Professor Fred Watson from the Australian Astronomical Observatory, told the broadcaster that as the moon orbits Earth, it is tilted at five degrees to the ecliptic – it can be five degrees above or below where the Sun would be at any point.

Occultations take place when the Moon's orbit is closely aligned with the ecliptic and the orbit of Saturn.

"That's why we get occultations all coming in a pile," he said.

"The Moon's relatively near — it's only 380,000km away — so depending upon where you are on the Earth, the moon appears to be in a slightly different position in the sky and therefore as it goes around the sky it covers up different things.

"There will be others that take place when the Moon's not in the sky in Australia, but someone, somewhere else gets to see it."

To watch the Slooh broadcast click here or visit live.slooh.com.

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