In Photos: See The Moon Eclipse Giant Planet Jupiter In Rare Event

Did you see the crescent Moon move in front of Jupiter on Wednesday morning?

If you’re in North America and were up before sunrise then you could have seen the unusual view of the gas giant and our own natural satellite crossing paths in the predawn sky.

The crescent Moon was just 5%-illuminated as it wanes to becoming a New Moon on Friday, June 19, so the pairing was a beautiful sight in itself.

However, it wasn’t the easiest observation to make since some of the phases of the event occured in daylight depending on the viewer’s exact location.

Here are some of the best images of the event so far that have been posted to social media by skilled astrophotographers, though it was easily visible to binoculars and the naked eye:

This event—called an occultation by astronomers, but more easily understood by the term eclipse—saw the crescent Moon move across Jupiter to cover it up from view for a few minutes of around an hour, depending on location. Some viewers saw only a very close conjunction of the Moon and Jupiter.

The key points of a lunar occultation are ingress and egress.

Ingress is when the limb of the Moon appears to meet, and then cover, the planet, with the view of the moment they touch the most dramatic. Egress is when the planet reappears on the other side of the Moon, in this case from behind its darkened limb.

The event was viewed in part or in full from across North America, as shown by this map by In-the-sky.org. On the east coast it was merely a very close conjunction during which Jupiter and the crescent Moon appeared to be just over a degree or so apart, with the actual occultation taking place in daylight.

That didn’t stop some astrophotographers catching it:

However, the farther west that gap appeared to narrow until a total eclipse was seen from some parts of the midwest, southwest and west coast (though the latter was only able to see the reappearance).

Also visible to those with telescopes just before ingress were two of Jupiter’s four so-called Galilean moons—Io and Europa—which were also hidden from view. The shadow of Io was visible on the cloud tops of the giant planet.

Just before Jupiter emerged its other two giant moons—first Callisto, then Ganymede—reappeared.

While this was taking place, NASA’s Juno spacecraft was completing its 51st orbit of the giant planet, during which it photographed Io during a close flyby from just 22,060 miles/35,500 kilometers. Io is the most volcanic celestial body that we know of in our solar system.

The next occultation of Jupiter by the Moon will take place on September 8, 2026, with only the east coast and the midwest able to see the entire event, and the southwest and west coast missing out entirely.

Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.