Overview
- The thin waxing crescent Moon will pass directly in front of Venus on Wednesday, June 17, with the event centered near 4:40 p.m. EDT (20:40 UTC) and exact local start and end times varying by location.
- Skywatchers across the contiguous United States, much of Canada, the Caribbean and parts of northern South America can see the occultation in daylight, while observers in northeastern South America will catch it after sunset.
- Because the event occurs in broad daylight, experts advise standing in a building's shadow, never aiming binoculars or telescopes toward the Sun, and using wide‑field views or live streams rather than risky narrow optics.
- At a given site the Moon will cover Venus’s roughly 15‑arcsecond disk in a matter of seconds (reported as about 29 seconds of coverage), with Venus shining near magnitude −4 about 38 degrees from the Sun.
- The June 17 occultation is the first of three lunar occultations of Venus in 2026, is followed hours later by the Moon occulting the Beehive cluster for parts of the southeastern U.S., and timing tables and livestreams are available from IOTA, In‑The‑Sky.org and planetarium software such as Stellarium.