Spectacular Views: The Moon Occults Jupiter

By Nancy Atkinson - July 16, 2012 at 3:38 AM UTC | uncategorized
occulation-1.jpg

Caption: July 15 2012 occultation, taken with Canon 550D on Newton 200/1200 mounted on NEQ6Pro. Credit: Andrei Juravle

Astrophotographers in Northern Africa, Europe and the Middle East were treated to a beautiful sight in the early morning hours of July 15, 2012. A lunar occultation of Jupiter took place just before dawn, as the waning crescent Moon slid in front of the planet Jupiter. Venus was hanging around nearby, too. Several astrophotographers were able to capture the event, and some got a bonus look at Jupiter's Galilean moons, as well! Above is a lovely image by Andrei Juravle.

More below!

Caption: The Moon, Venus and Jupiter. Credit Thierry Legault.

Astrophotographer extraordinaire

Thierry Legault

took this great shot of Venus, Jupiter and the Moon from Saint-Cloud, France with a Canon 5D mark II and 135mm lens. But look closely: the satellites of Jupiter are visible:

Caption: A closer look reveals Jupiter's moons! Credit: Thierry Legault.

And as always, you should check out

Thierry's website

for more incredible images.

Caption: Jupiter and the Moon hover over Dolmabahce Mosque in Istanbul, Turkey. Credit: Rasid Tugral.

Caption: Clouds nearly covered the view in Mombaroccio, Marche, Italy. Credit: Niki Giada

.

Caption: A series of images of the Moon's occultation of Jupiter as seen in Saida, Lebanon. Credit: astroZ1 on Flickr.

Caption: Occultation of Jupiter by the Moon as seen from Smolyan, Bulgaria. Credit: Zlatan Merakov.

More images are still coming in, and you can see more on

Universe Today's Flickr page.

Thanks to everyone who submitted their gorgeous images!

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com