Jim Livingston in Custer, South Dakota caught this interesting shot of bright Aldebaran in the moon’s glare, as the moon approached the star and prepared to cover it.Bright star Aldebaran on the moon’s dark edge, just before the moon passes in front of the star. Photo by Michael Caruso in Morgantown, West Virginia.Gowrishankar Lakshminarayanan wrote: “I was in upstate New York, scouting for a possible observing location for my astronomy group. Was fortunate to capture the Aldebaran-moon occultation during this visit. It was an awesome experience to see how close the occultation was. To show how close the occultation was – I’ve overexposed the moon to show the earthshine. It was awesome to see Aldebaran wink before it went behind the moon.”
Donny Crocker-Jensen in Wardsville, Missouri made the video below of last night’s occultation and posted it at EarthSky Facebook. In the video, you’ll see Aldebaran right next to the moon, on the moon’s dark edge. Then, just before moonset, Aldebaran winks out as the moon passes in front of it:
Moments before the moon occulted Aldebaran…from Karl Diefenderfer in Quakertown, Pennsylvania. Aldebaran is on the moon’s dark edge, around 2 o’clock.Scott MacNeill at Frosty Drew Observatory in Rhode Island wrote: “This composite shows the occultation at a 1-minute intervals … Last night’s occultation brought the ‘graze line’ of the occultation to Rhode Island. The graze line is a very small geographical line where Aldebaran will be seen to pass along the edge of the moon.” If you’re situated on an occultation’s graze line and using a telescope, you can see a star winking on and off as it passes behind lunar mountains and valleys along the edge of the moon.Michael Holland in Lakeland, Florida contributed this photo of the occultation.Sonny Ong caught this photo as the moon-Aldebaran occultation ended, from New York City. He wrote: “Photo taken from Woodside, New York facing west towards Midtown Manhattan.”
Bottom line: Photos of the March 4, 2017 occultation of Aldebaran by the moon. Thanks to all who contributed!
Deborah Byrd created the EarthSky radio series in 1991 and founded EarthSky.org in 1994. Prior to that, she had worked for the University of Texas McDonald Observatory since 1976, and created and produced their Star Date radio series. Today, she serves as Editor-in-Chief of this website. She has won a galaxy of awards from the broadcasting and science communities, including having an asteroid named 3505 Byrd in her honor. In 2020, she won the Education Prize from the American Astronomical Society, the largest organization of professional astronomers in North America. A science communicator and educator since 1976, Byrd believes in science as a force for good in the world and a vital tool for the 21st century. "Being an EarthSky editor is like hosting a big global party for cool nature-lovers," she says.
Like what you read? Subscribe and receive daily news delivered to your inbox.
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
