Daytime Lunar Occultation of Venus
9th November 2023

I don't usually even consider trying to see daytime occultations because of the obvious problem - daylight is much brighter than most celestial objects and so they simply would not be visible. There are some exceptions though. The Moon is of course one, but Venus can also be seen without too much trouble (if you know where to look!) as it is often very bright. In the case of an occultation the "knowing where to look" problem is easily solved as, clearly, the answer is "right next to the Moon"! I thought I might as well give it a go therefore, particularly as the next one would not be until 2025, with the next one in some degree of darkness not until 2032 - and that one would only be 10 degrees above the horizon whereas the 2023 event was at a nice high 35 degrees.

A quick look outside just before the event showed a clear sky so I grabbed my binoculars and ventured out. I had checked where in the sky the Moon would be so found it quite quickly and when I raised the binoculars there was Venus, shining brightly (at magnitude -4.4 in fact) just below and to the left! Greatly encouraged, I readied my Canon Powershot "hyper-zoom" camera & tripod, donned some warm clothing and sallied forth - only to find that the sky was now criss-crossed with banks of cloud which had appeared as if from nowhere! Typical, I thought. There seemed to be some hope though as a brisk wind was moving the clouds quite rapidly, and fortunately a break appeared just a few minutes before the critical moment. Locating that break, and the Moon within it, when on high zoom was not entirely straightforward though (one whisp of cloud looks very much like any other!) so by the time the Moon was in frame it was very close to the predicted time of ingress. I was able to capture a few images before Venus began to disappear though, and several as Venus slid behind the Moon's limb. It was very noticeable during this time that Venus did not just "wink out" but rather became progressively less bright before finally vanishing. This is because Venus shows a definite disc, rather than being a point object such as a star, and so will take a short while to be obscured completely - about 1 minute 20 seconds in this case.

Having taken my final picture I retreated into the warm to await Venus' re-appearance about an hour later but, unfortunately, by then the sky had become totally overcast so I was unable to see the second part of the occultation. The clouds didn't clear until three-quarters of an hour after Venus would have re-emerged but at least that gave me the opportunity to get a picture showing Venus to the right of the Moon, showing that the Moon had indeed passed over Venus in the interim. It was then time to examine my images to see exactly what I had got, and to assemble them into a form suitable for display.

To find out what I managed to come up with, click the links below.

  Pictures of the occultation        Technical Info

  Animations of the occultation