Daylight Occultation of Venus by the Moon

Composite images of Venus occultation on Sept. 11, 2010. Credit: Kerneels Mulder

On September 11, 2010 South Africa had an amazing view of a full daylight occultation of Venus by the Moon, and Kerneels Mulder captured it, and shared it with Universe Today. He sent us this video created from the images he took of the event, and below is a composite look at all the images, showing Venus as it reappears from behind the Moon.

“The occultation happened in full daylight, with the Moon only 40° from the Sun, making it difficult to capture detailed images,” Mulder wrote us. “Venus disappeared behind the dark side of the Moon at around 14:20 (GMT+2) and reappeared on the bright side of the Moon at 15:54 (GMT+2).”

Mulder said the sight was amazing. “With the naked eye Venus was easily visible as a bright dot close to the crescent Moon. The 3.5” refractor used during imaging showed an even more awe-inspiring view with both the crescents of the Venus and the Moon visible in the same field of view.”

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Nancy Atkinson

Nancy has been with Universe Today since 2004, and has published over 6,000 articles on space exploration, astronomy, science and technology. She is the author of two books: "Eight Years to the Moon: the History of the Apollo Missions," (2019) which shares the stories of 60 engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make landing on the Moon possible; and "Incredible Stories from Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos" (2016) tells the stories of those who work on NASA's robotic missions to explore the Solar System and beyond. Follow Nancy on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Nancy_A and and Instagram at and https://www.instagram.com/nancyatkinson_ut/