At 3:47 p.m. on June 17, 2026, the Moon will slide in front of Venus for a rare daytime lunar occultation. Venus will reemerge on the opposite side 87 minutes later. Clear skies with only a few scattered clouds are expected.
A lunar occultation occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and another celestial object, temporarily blocking it from view. Think of it as an eclipse, but with a planet instead of the Sun, and much dimmer as a result.
Other WRAL Top Stories
While the Moon regularly blocks stars, occultations involving bright planets are less common, and daytime visibility of events like this are far rarer. The Moon and Venus must be in just the right place at the right time. You also need to be in the right place. The last lunar occultation of Venus was March 23, 2023, visible along a path stretching from southern Africa to Japan.
Daytime lunar occultations are particularly rare, and Venus is the only planet bright enough to punch through the daylight. The last one visible from the U.S. was back in December 2015.
To see Wednesday's show, look for the slender crescent Moon high in the southeast beginning about 3:40 p.m. The dot to the lower left about the 8 o'clock position is Venus. Over the next 10 minutes, you'll see the planet disappear behind the unlit side portion of the Moon.
Find the Moon again beginning 5:05 p.m. and you'll see Venus reemerge from behind the lit crescent shortly before 5:15 p.m.
Nearly all the motion you are seeing is the speedy Moon, a mere 228,400 miles away. Venus is pretty speedy as well, but at 77 million miles away, it contributes little to the show.
Finding the pair is challenging in the daylight, so give yourself plenty of time. Venus and the Moon have been up since around 9 a.m., so you can practice ahead of time. Once you've seen the Moon during the day, you'll notice it a lot more.
Binoculars will make the event much easier to observe, but take extreme care. The Moon and Venus will be about 38 to 40 degrees from the Sun, wider than your outstretched thumb and pinky, but will still be relatively nearby in the sky.
Never sweep the sky with binoculars or a telescope while the Sun is above the horizon. Accidentally viewing the Sun through any optical equipment can cause permanent eye damage or blindness.
A safer approach is to stand in the shadow of a building, tree or anything that completely blocks the Sun from view before looking through binoculars.
One technique amateur astronomers use is to find the object in the sky without binoculars, then follow a mental line down the ground and find a tree, sign, etc. as a reference. Point your binoculars at that object, then move upward until your celestial target comes into view.
If you miss Wednesday's show, the Moon and Venus will still be very close and low in the western sky after sunset. The Moon will next hide Jupiter in the early morning hours of October 6.