Venus occultation today

[Steve Gottlieb]

I missed this morning’s Venus occultation by the crescent moon because of fog in Albany, but they’re still fairly close together and make a beautiful pair in binoculars. Check it out!

[Muriel Dulieu Holzer]

Very pretty!

Thank you Steve!

-Muriel

On Wed, Jun 17, 2026 at 2:21 PM Steve Gottlieb <astrog...@gmail.com> wrote:

I missed this morning’s Venus occultation by the crescent moon because of fog in Albany, but they’re still fairly close together and make a beautiful pair in binoculars.  Check it out!

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[Mark]

Just took a 10x25 bino outside.  Crescent moon is just west of straight overhead and easy to find, horns painted east (naked eye).  In bonos Venus s nice bright easy object preceding the moon by about a degree.

I agree Steve, to bad it was overcast this morning.

[Dan Durkin]

Russel and I (SFAA & Marin Stargazers) converged on the East Peak of Tam to surmount the surprisingly thick fog layer. We scrambled to set-up at an overlook along the trail on the right that goes around the peak. We enjoyed sharing the event with curious hikers. They were all delighted by the astronomical experience and we enjoyed chit-chatting. Some were incredulous that you could see the Moon and Venus during the day ... until they actually could with our help! This group a ladies was able to find the Moon and the emergent Venus with their own binoculars - they were thrilled! I actually missed the moment of Venus disappearing because I was sharing the view. 🥴  As the moment of egress approached, I apologized that I could not share this time. 😉

Some notes on the event:

• Venus was bright!!! 
• I could see the Moon naked eye before occultation, but it was intermittent. Perhaps this was due to the sky's variable transparency when the Moon was low, and perhaps due to my pupil contracting. 
• With my naked eyes, I did not notice Venus before occultation.
• Watching Venus-Rise through my telescope was thrilling! The contrast of bright Venus and the fainter Moon added drama. Crater Langrenus was most often discernible. Later with the Moon higher and the sky more transparent, Crater Petavius was also discernible.
• After egress, I could easily see Venus naked eye above the crescent Moon. When we vacated the site at 1:30 PM, I could still see Venus naked eye. I did not realize it was so brilliant!

[Mark Wagner]

Wonderful account Dan.  Almost as good as being there, thanks!

[Rashi]

Was able to see the Occultation with 10x42 binos...took a while to find the moon - blended so well into the blue sky! 

Caught two hand held phone camera shots ... Not the best by any means but got em both before and on occultation exit! 

Pixel 7 at max zoom and a medium deep breath hold to stay as steady as I could ... LoL 🤣 

Enjoy! 

--
Rashi G. (mobile)

[Russell Blackadar]

Lovely experience with Dan -- and I got the photo I wanted. Setup with a 127 Mak and DSLR, as shown in Dan's photo of me. Polar alignment by guesswork, but I made a good guess -- also, I could not see the moon at all (at first) but I synced the mount to the sun and then slewed to the target, which surprised me by being there! Focus with the DSLR was a big problem but easy to fix when the planet emerged.

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[Shashi Sathya]

Very cool image.  Saw it with the binocs too .