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Credit & Copyright: Arnaud Mariat
Explanation:
There was something behind the clouds.
Upon close inspection, it was the
Moon,
which was hard to see yesterday around noon above the small village of
Cessy,
France.
But soon, it was not only
the Moon.
As expected, a bright dot suddenly appeared from behind the Moon --
the planet
Venus far in the distance.
Captured in the single
featured exposure, both appeared to show a
crescent phase.
The Moon's
crescent was quite slight --
with only about 10 percent of its face illuminated by
the Sun.
In contrast,
Venus's crescent was more full --
showing about 25 percent illumination.
Venus appeared brighter because it is nearer the Sun and because its
clouds are more reflective than the
dark lunar surface.
An occultation of
Venus by the Moon is visible
to only about 10 percent of
the Earth,
but in yesterday's event even most of that was experiencing
daytime.
APOD's main NASA site is
moving:
From apod.nasa.gov to
science.nasa.gov/apod
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: Moon - Venus - occultation
Publications with words: Moon - Venus - occultation
See also:
- APOD: 2026 August 25 Á Earths Shadow Visualized with Lunar Eclipses
- APOD: 2026 May 11 Á Moon Setting Behind Teide Volcano
- APOD: 2026 May 9 Á Messier Craters in Stereo
- APOD: 2026 April 15 Á The ISS Transits the Moon
- APOD: 2026 April 11 Á Artemis II: Flight Day 6
- Lunar Occultation of Mercury
- The Bay of Rainbows