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Taken from Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occultation) An occultation is an event that occurs when one object is hidden by another object that passes between it and the observer. The word is used in astronomy and can also be used in a general (non-astronomical) sense to describe when an object in the foreground occults (covers up) objects in the background. In the general sense, occultation applies to the visual scene from low-flying aircraft and in Computer-Generated Image (CGI) technology, where foreground objects obscure distant ones in a dynamic way as the scene changes. Astronomical events. These include transits and eclipses. The word transit refers to cases where the nearer object appears smaller in apparent size than the more distant object, such as transit of Mercury or Venus across the Sun's disk. The word eclipse generally refers to those instances in which one object moves into the shadow of another. Each of these three events is the visible effect of a syzygy. Every time an occultation occurs, an eclipse also occurs. Consider a so-called "eclipse" of the Sun by the Moon, as seen from Earth. In this event, the Moon physically moves between Earth and the Sun, thus blocking out a portion or all of the bright disk of the Sun. Although this phenomenon is usually referred to as an "eclipse", this term is a misnomer, because the Moon is not eclipsing the Sun; instead the Moon is occulting the Sun. When the Moon occults the Sun, it casts a small shadow on the surface of the Earth, and therefore the Moon's shadow is partially eclipsing Earth. So a so-called "solar eclipse" actually consists of (i) an occultation of the Sun by the Moon, as seen from Earth, and (ii) a partial eclipse of Earth by the Moon's shadow. By contrast, an "eclipse" of the Moon is in fact a true eclipse: the Moon moves into the shadow cast back into space by Earth, and is said to be eclipsed by Earth's shadow. As seen from the surface of the Moon, Earth passes directly between the Moon and the Sun, thus blocking or occulting the Sun as seen by a hypothetical lunar observer. Again, every eclipse also entails an occultation. Please note that the information listed below has been provided by David Dunham and is being automatically pulled from (http://iota.jhuapl.edu/exped.htm) |
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