© A. Slotegraaf

2007 January 20. Seen from the southern Cape, the slender crescent Moon occulted Venus on Saturday evening. By the time twilight had advanced, Venus was nowhere to be seen – kinda odd, because the past few days it's been prominent in the west near comet McNaught. Where Venus should have been, the sickle-Moon glimmered. At 19:48, the Moon grew a brilliant pimple (close-up) as Venus reappeared from behind the bright limb. Surreal. "Fully, bro."

This image shows the Venus-less sky above a crowed of comet-watchers on Saturday, while this image shows the comet, too, shortly after Venus emerged.

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Keywords: Astronomy, astrophotography, digital camera, gallery, southern Africa

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