Moon Occults Saturn

Explanation: Sometimes Saturn disappears. It doesn't really go away, though, it just disappears from view when our Moon moves in front . Such a Saturnian eclipse was visible along a small swath of Earth -- from Brazil to Sri Lanka -- near the end of last month. The featured color image is a digital fusion of the clearest images captured by successive videos of the event taken in red, green, and blue, and taken separately for Saturn and the comparative bright Moon . The exposures were taken from South Africa just before occultation -- and also just before sunrise. When Saturn re-appeared on the other side of the Moon almost two hours later, the Sun had risen . This year, eclipses of Saturn by the Moon occur almost monthly , but, unfortunately, are visible only to those with the right location and with clear and dark skies.

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