An Occultation — The Waning Moon, Jupiter, and the four Galilean moons!
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Image credit: Juerg Alean
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In space, an occultation happens when one object passes in front of another from an observer's perspective. A simple example is a solar eclipse. From a certain area on Earth, the moon passes in front of the sun and either partially or totally blocks the light. So we can say that the sun is "eclipsed" or "occulted."
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A lunar eclipse is another example of an occultation, but the description is a little more complicated. When this happens, anybody on the dark side of the Earth can watch the moon pass into the Earth's shadow, so that the Earth is directly in between the Earth and the sun. This eclipse or occultation turns the moon red-brown because it catches the reflected light on the edge of Earth's atmosphere, where the wavelengths are longest.
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It should be emphasized that occultations don't only take place on Earth — they can take place anywhere in the universe. For example, the Apollo 12 astronauts flew through Earth's shadow and saw a solar eclipse on their way home from the moon in 1969.
Via Space.com
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