Monday 31 December 2012

The Meeting of Two Celestial Bodies

On 25th December 2012 people in South America had the opportunity to see a lovely celestial event - lunar occultation of Jupiter. This happens when the Moon moves across Jupiter and temporarily hides it from view.

Here's a video of this event captured by the Brasilian astrophotographer Rafael Defavari:


There are a few occultations of planets and bright stars by the Moon each year. Here are the ones for 2013: http://asa.usno.navy.mil/SecA/2013/olist13.html

Whether you will see one depends on your location. In Dec 2008, there was a spectacular occultation of Venus visible in Europe:

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