Jupiter Behind the Moon

In this morning twilight view from Turkey, the crescent Moon and Venus appears in constellation Taurus. But if you carefully look at the bright side of the Moon, you find a little bump there. It is planet Jupiter moments before disappearing behind the moon in a rare planetary occultation. To compare the naked eye view with a telescopic image of this phenomenon, which can also be seen on National Geographic News, click on the second photo. The two photos show the beginning and the end of the occultation (about an hour apart). Note the Galilean satellites of Jupiter close the mother planet. Back to the wide-angle view, you find Pleiades star cluster above the Moon just like a little grape cluster in the sky. The bright red star at upper right of Venus is Aldebaran which marks the eye of the celestial bull. On the image left is the constellation Auriga which hosts Capella, one of the brightest stars in the night sky.