09/07/2026
Watch the moon hide Jupiter in broad daylight Tuesday afternoon, Sept. 8
It's rare when the moon slips in front of a planet and hides it, an event called an occultation. And it's a kick to watch. The moon (moving east) slowly devours the hapless planet until it completely disappears. An hour later, give-or-take, the planet returns to view, rising from the opposite edge like some scene from another world.
On October 6, the waning crescent will occult Jupiter in a dark sky shortly before and during dawn. That will be spectacular! To see it you'll only need your eyes and a pair of binoculars. But before that happens, the moon hides Jupiter in daylight.
Daylight makes it more difficult to see but not if you have a small telescope. You'll just need to find the moon a short time before the start, and look for Jupiter very close to the east (left) of the bright crescent. Tripod-mounted binoculars under a haze-free, blue sky will show the planet as a tiny dot near the moon, but a scope is best.
Roughly the eastern two-thirds of the U.S. will witness the event tomorrow. Here's a basic coverage map: https://in-the-sky.org/news.php?id=20260908_16_100. I included several sample cities here, but to find out exact times for your location, go to https://stellarium-web.org/ and set the date and time (lower right corner), search for Jupiter, then zoom in to see Jupiter and the moon together. Step through the time to determine when the planet disappears and reappears. Good luck!
(All times are local time).
