Discover the cosmosEach day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
There was something behind the clouds.
Upon close inspection, it was the Moon, which was hard to see yesterday around noon above the small village ofCessy, France.
But soon, it was not onlythe Moon.
As expected, a bright dot suddenly appeared from behind the Moon — the planet Venusfar in the distance.
Captured in the singlefeatured exposure, both appeared to show acrescentphase.
The Moon’screscentwas quite slight — with only about 10 percent of its face illuminated bythe Sun.
In contrast, Venus’s crescentwas more full — showing about 25 percent illumination.
Venus appeared brighter because it is nearer the Sun and because itscloudsare more reflective than thedark lunar surface.
AnoccultationofVenus by the Moonis visible to only about 10 percent ofthe Earth, but in yesterday’s event even most of that was experiencingdaytime.
APOD’s main NASA site ismoving:Fromapod.nasa.govtoscience.nasa.gov/apod Tomorrow’s picture:galactic eye