Millions of stargazers watched Jupiter disappear from the night sky on Tuesday (Oct. 6) as the moon’s thin crescent moon passed directly in front of the gas giant in a spectacular display of orbital mechanics. The complete occultation was visible in a swath of North America, West Africa and the Atlantic Ocean, where the moon passed directly between Jupiter and the observer. Many others outside the occultation path saw the 20% illuminated moon shine just a few degrees from Jupiter. thanks to the parallax effect, which causes nearby celestial objects to appear in a subtly different location depending on the viewer’s location on Earth. (Reminder: Your clenched fist at arm’s length covers about 10 degrees of the sky.) Read on to see our favorite photos from the October 6 lunar occultation. Jupiter and Crescent Moon Dazzle in Photos of the October 6 Occultation Peter Zay captured this beautiful image of Jupiter shining brightly in the skies over North Carolina shortly before the gas giant disappeared from view behind the lunar crescent. You might like “Astrophotography is unforgiving,” Zay told Space.com in an email. “As a photojournalist, I do not use techniques such as photography[s] from various exhibitions. I stay true to authentic captures. I regularly photograph the Moon, its phases, solar and lunar eclipses, etc. Planning is key: equipment, weather, location and timing. But still, it is difficult, nature itself demands that optical capabilities be pushed to the limit.” Jupiter shines beneath the sunlit arc of the crescent moon. (Image credit: Photo by Peter Zay/Anadolu via Getty Images)Zay also photographed Jupiter as it emerged from behind the night side of the moon, while fine-tuning his camera to reveal a different aspect of the impressive occultation. “I knew that success meant balancing the luminosity of the sunlit surface of the Moon and the four o’clock of Jupiter. moons. Proper exposure for the Moon’s 20% solar illumination would not reveal Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto,” Zay continued. “My photography captures lunar craters, earthshine, and stars scattered in the background. My geographic position placed Jupiter and its moons perfectly in the middle as I emerged from the shadow side of the Moon. Who could ask for more?” Jupiter emerges from behind the night side of the lunar disk. (Image credit: Photo by Peter Zay/Anadolu via Getty Images) Astrophotographer Steven Bellavia witnessed the occultation from a dark-sky site in Potters County, Pennsylvania, where he captured the scene with an Explore Scientific Maksutov-Cassegrain 152mm combined with a ZWO ASI 662MC astronomical camera. Jupiter slides behind the moon in the skies, Pennsylvania (Image credit: Steven Bellavia) “I was racing against the clock just to get Jupiter on the little sensor,” Bellavia told Space.com “I got it just in time to focus and start recording SER videos. I then took the best of thousands of images and sorted them to come up with my favorite. Align and stack doesn’t work well with two objects moving at different speeds, so the image is a single 50-millisecond snapshot.” What to read next Josh McCollum, meanwhile, pointed his Skywatcher 400P Flextube Dobsonian telescope and his Celestron C11 Schmidt Cassegrain at Jupiter to take stunning views of the solar system’s encounter from the Emmaus district of Pennsylvania. Images of the occultation Jupiter/Lunar this morning! https://t.co/3gWsSawxjGOOctober 6, 2026 “Atmospheric conditions were not ideal, but Ganymede (the largest moon in the solar system) can be seen above Jupiter as it approached full occultation,” McCollum told Space.com in an email. “Its return was easy to find, as Europa and Io were the first to leave the moon before it. Jupiter. The coolest part was seeing the silhouette of the moon as Jupiter returned to our night sky. I was very happy to receive this photo, and it was extremely surreal to see an event like this.” Some more images of Jupiter’s lunar occultation this morning. https://t.co/U1rn32dCv6October 6, 2026 user EricTheCat also posted great views of the occultation as it unfolded in the skies over Minnesota. “Since the event started at 6 degrees and ended at 15 degrees above my horizon, I opted to expose to show “Moons and Earthshine instead of trying to get finer details,” Eric noted in a post on the social media site. Time-lapse of Jupiter’s lunar occultation this morning. https://t.co/UXBtNPXA5pOctober 6, 2026 Want to try your hand at astrophotography? Then be sure to check out our roundups of the best cameras and lenses for astrophotography, along with our pick of the best telescopes and binoculars for exploring at night. sky.Editor’s note: If you would like to share your planetary or lunar astrophotography with Space.com readers, please send your photos and comments, along with your name and location to spacephotos@space.com.
