Ink | Pen | Paper

I was in Facebook when a friend told me that she saw the planet Venus above the crescent moon. I realized I totally forgot that May 16, 2010 was the schedule of the occultation of the Planet Venus by the crescent moon.

So I hurried back to my boarding house to get my tripod. I then asked permission from the TGU Tower building security office if I could go up the rooftop, but they said I needed a permit for that, so I had no choice but to find ANY location that faced westwards.

I did eventually find one but I was in a really bad location--it was at the 4th Floor Parking Lot, and the only thing close to a window were a series of grill slits that faced west. But nonetheless, I set up my crude equipment against those grills, and began to take my shots. I took a total of more than 50 shots (my cam was in sequence mode), and the following photos are fair/good blow-by-blow images of how the Planet Venus disappeared behind the moon....

7:22 PM, building in foreground is "The Walk" at IT Park


7:26 PM


7:30 PM


7:36 PM


7:37 PM First contact! Venus is now slowly sinking into the dark disc of the moon!


7:39 PM...no more Venus! It's behind the moon now...


And...as icing on the cake, I managed to take a video of the actual moment when Venus get's "swallowed" by the dark disc of the moon:

YouTube - Occultation of the Planet Venus by the Moon, May 16, 2010

Thrilling to see the actual moment when Venus disappears...sends a shiver down one's spine

Now, for some science behind this event. Three objects are "moving" in the photos:

a) Venus, second, planet from the sun, appears like a bright star, because of its immense distance from the earth.

b) the Moon, appearing as a crescent because it's almost in between the sun and the Earth

c) and the EARTH! Yes, the earth itself is rotating on its axis, and thus the moon-Venus combo keeps going lower into the western horizon. Combine all three movements, and you get a situation wherein the Moon and Venus "kiss" each other in that spot in the sky

I don't really like "blitzkreig" astrophoto sessions, but in this case, it was satisfying to actually get ANYTHING, despite the lack of time/preparation.

-RODION