Earthshine Moon Meets Pleiades

From the photographer: “When the northern inclination of the Moon’s orbit happens to be in Taurus, which begins about the time of major Lunar standstill and lasts 2~3 years, the Moon can be seen to occult the stars of Pleiades monthly, around every 27 1/3 days. One cannot get to see every occultation set, because of those 1/3-day remainder. Some occultations may happen in daytime, which may render them invisible. And when the Moon is gibbous or near full phase, stars of Pleiades may be more difficult to observe.

The best scenario is to have a crescent Moon, preferably thin one, having a close conjunction with Pleiades, hopefully occulting some Pleiads in the process. But this is a rarity, having the crescent Moon up with Pleiades, while the Sun is under the horizon. Thankfully, 23rd June 2025 was such a morning for our longitudes in Turkey, and also parts of Europe.

As seen from our rooftop, Pleiades and the Moon rose in the northeast at predawn hours, around 0330 local time (GMT+3). I photographed shot this view of the east as the dawn arrived, showing Pleiades-Moon pair and also nearby Venus shining above our urban skyline. The second picture is a close-up of the Pleiades and the Moon, less than a minute before Merope was occulted. Thanks to the clear and transparent conditions, I was able to get this picture with a single shot. It was possible to use a sufficiently long exposure to bring out many stars of the cluster without any overexposure, as crescent Moon was thin and faint enough. This was at 0435 local time (GMT+3).”