Although occultations can occur in a variety of ways, the heavenly body most often involved is our moon which inevitably will occult (or eclipse) background stars, other planets as well as asteroids. The study of occultations is important, for example, for the study of the moon's limb and its profile thanks to the grazing of lunar features such as mountains.

What is perhaps more interesting but not as frequent is occultations involving the moon and one of the planets. Typically the planets involved are Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Due to the great magnitude difference between the moon (any phase) and any of these planets, the photography of these events can be challenging.

Without doubt, the most stunning example of the moon occulting another body is that involving the sun which, of course, leads to a solar eclipse. This special example of an occultation is available elsewhere on this site.

Note: Jupiter was characterized with an apparent diameter of only 41.49 arc-seconds, a magnitude of +2.3 and a phase of 99.5% whereas the waxing ten-day old crescent Moon was at magnitude -11.7 and with a phase of 81.3%. Due to the dramatic difference in magnitude between the Moon, Jupiter and the Jovian satellites, two separate exposures were necessary so as to capture each component properly exposed.