Occultation of Venus by the Moon

The term occultation is most frequently used to describe those relatively frequent occasions when the Moon passes in front of a star during the course of its orbital motion around the Earth. Since the Moon has no atmosphere and stars have no appreciable angular size, a star that is occulted by the moon will disappear or reappear very nearly instantaneously on the moon's edge, or limb. Events that take place on the Moon's dark limb are of particular interest to observers, because the lack of glare allows these occultations to more easily be observed and timed.

The Moon's orbit is inclined to the ecliptic (see orbit of the Moon), and any stars with an ecliptic latitude of less than about 6.5 degrees may be occulted by it. There are three first magnitude stars that are sufficiently close to the ecliptic that they may be occulted by the Moon and by planets -- Regulus, Spica and Antares. Occultations of Aldebaran are presently only possible by the Moon, because the planets pass Aldebaran to the north. Neither planetary nor lunar occultations of Pollux are currently possible. However, in the far future, occultations of Aldebaran and Pollux will be possible, as they were in the far past.