APOD: 2026 September 15 – A Daytime Eclipse: Moon Occults Venus

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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

A Daytime Eclipse: Moon Occults Venus

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 of Cessy, France. But soon, it was not only the Moon. As expected, a bright dot suddenly appeared from behind the Moon — the planet Venus far in the distance. Captured in the single featured exposure, both appeared to show a crescent phase. The Moon’s crescent was quite slight — with only about 10 percent of its face illuminated by the Sun. In contrast, Venus’s crescent was more full — showing about 25 percent illumination. Venus appeared brighter because it is nearer the Sun and because its clouds are more reflective than the dark lunar surface. An occultation of Venus by the Moon is visible to only about 10 percent of the Earth, but in yesterday’s event even most of that was experiencing daytime.

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Tomorrow’s picture: galactic eye

Date

September 15, 2026

Credit & Copyright

Arnaud Mariat

Authors & editors:

Robert Nemiroff, Jerry Bonnell, Cecilia Chirenti, Keighley Rockcliffe

A service of:

ASD at NASA / GSFC,

NASA Science Activation & Michigan Tech. U.

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