Eclipsing the Rings
 Lunar Occultation of Saturn, March 2nd 2007
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day, March 16th 2007
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Year, March 2007
Lunar picture of the Day, March 5th 2007
As the Moon thunders around its orbit once a month, it sometimes appears to move in front of other objects in the sky. This composite image was taken when the Moon passed across the beautiful ringed planet Saturn. On this occasion and from the location where the image was taken, the Moon didn't quite manage to cover the whole planet and appeared to perform what's known as a grazing occultaion.

This image was taken from the West Sussex town of Selsey in the UK and shows a time-lapse sequence of Saturn passing behind the edge of the Moon. The title "Eclipsing the Rings" was actually coined by the Astronomy Picture of the Day team despite the fact that the event isn't strictly speaking an eclipse - it's an occultation.

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