NASA astrophotography for May 24, 2023: When the Moon hid behind Jupiter, Sony cameras captured this amazing image

Over the past few months, we’ve seen some stunning snapshots of celestial objects as part of NASA’s Astronomical Photograph of the Day, published daily. Snapshots of celestial bodies like galaxies, black holes, nebulae, etc. were taken by astrophysicists from all over the world and shared by NASA. Today’s photo, however, is a different one because it’s not a snapshot of a specific object, but a mystical one. For those unaware, paranormal phenomena occur when an object like the moon hides from the observer behind another.

Today NASA Astronomical images of the day is a snapshot of the occult of the Moon, as the Moon hides behind Jupiter. This phenomenon occurred earlier this month and while the Moon was half illuminated by Sun, the other part of it is hidden. In a snapshot shared by NASA, the Moon is in the background of the Lick Observatory in California, USA, atop Mount Hamilton.

The photo was taken by an astrophysicist Rick Whitacre from Joseph D Grant Park in California using sony Full frame hybrid camera A7IV with Sony FE 200-600mm lens.

NASA’s description of the painting

We sometimes witness the Moon moving directly in front of us — known as paranormal phenomena — one of the planets in our Solar System. Earlier this month, that planet was Jupiter. Pictured here is the moment Jupiter reappears from behind the surface of our Moon. The Moon is in the third quarter, two days before the New Moon darkens.

Now, our Moon is constantly half-lit by the Sun, but when in the third quartile, relatively little of that half is visible from Earth. In the photo, the Moon aligns itself behind the famous Lick Observatory in California, USA, on top of Mount Hamilton. Coincidentally, Lick triggered the discovery of one of Jupiter’s moons: Amalthea, the last moon to be discovered with the naked eye of Jupiter after Galileo’s observations.